Please Someone want the sun
by insanechildfanfic
Summary: Naruto is about to burn out, broken from his failure to return Sasuke, he leaves on the three year journey with the ero-sennin.
1. Prologue: The Sun's tribute to the Moon

Please someone, want the sun!

Disclaimer- No I don't own the characters or the idea of Naruto. As if I did, welll…grins and drools at the idea of hot guys on other hot guys. Yeah, well…enjoy…if you have any constructive criticism it's cool, but really don't like the idea of two guys together, back space…I don't care personally if you think I'm a sick individual who should die…and all the other flamers you could send…

Yaoi, Sasu/Naru, Kaka/Iru; other pairings up for grabs (depends on muse and request)

Ages

Sasuke- 14, 16

Sakura- 14, 16

Naruto- 13, 15

The yellow moon was full and beautiful to look at, bringing many admirers, and yet the watching pre-teen couldn't understand how it was so captivating or beautiful. The moon was unfeeling, and selfish, keeping most of his light for himself. Everyone always and forever more would admire him, and watch him with adoring, loving, worshiping eyes, even when he changed his many cycles, yet it was the same cruel, cold, selfish and easily angered. Not caring of those who watched with an out stretch hand and a hopeful smile on the face reaching towards him. The moon just ignored such pleas for his attention, keeping silent and mysterious. Bringing even more admirers to watch, even those who would love to pretend that they're not affected by the moon. They rejoiced the most when he was full, mourning and complaining when it was missing from their view, going as so far to waist the day, awaiting the night, so that they could greet the moon into the sky.

The observing teenager couldn't just understand how the moon could be so enchanting. Oh, don't get him wrong, he too was enchanted with the moon, but he didn't show it to the others, he knew the moon had faults, but his mourning and sorrow went to the one who needed it, to the sun.

Sure everyone was aware of the sun, but most ignored him, unless he was too bright or hot then they complained. And if the light he gave off was cold, cold as the sun could possibly be, then the sun was insulted and complained about. He was always not wanted or saw as pathetic burden not doing his weight. The sun could do nothing to please anyone, and for the first time since he had met his first friend and father-like figure… the sun thought of giving it up. Stop trying to please everyone, stop trying to be acknowledged by everyone, and stop…stop trying to make his dream come alive. It was becoming too foggy for the sun's light to shine though, and the sun was sick of burning, so sick that he was ready to burn out.

Everything the sun did was stupid. Tried to hard or too little, there was nothing the he could do that was good enough. It could never be better or even equal to the moon. Every mistake gave more light to the moon as it corrected them, even if it was a small one. More praise and attention to one, who never needed it, never appreciated at, and worse never wanted it. Not like the sun that would do anything for a single glance, a single smile, no matter how small. Just one real smile, one real warm glance. That wasn't full of spite or malice, but of kindness and acknowledgement that he was loved if not liked.

A bitter laugh strangled cry came from the sun kissed blonde spiky haired teenager's mouth, as he realized his thoughts had automatically found the comparison as he thought of the sun and the moon. The teenager had automatically refereed to the moon as a he, indicating Sasuke, and he had done the same with the sun, only the he, was himself. The sun was Naruto, the dobe…the demon…the wasted space.

Leaning against the tree, as his body rested on the tallest-yet strong branch, the teenager looked up carefully at the moon, his cerulean blue eyes filled with a grief and a wariness that normally one held when they were at the end of their life, not just about to reach their prime.

The moon shone coldly back against the teenager's face, lighting up his delicate elfin features. Only with three scars on both his cheeks like whiskers, and yet instead of marring it, it made him even more beautiful. His eyes were a deep shade of blue, it wasn't just sky blue, or if it was then it was the star space blue. You know when it's day light and you have rare sight of stars during the day, and yet where the sky around the stars are a darker shade of blue, even though it was a deep sky blue. They were clear, yet instead of the usual smile in his eyes they were lost, and had a betrayed, yet tired look to them, one that should have been in the eyes of someone so young, and also held one of self disgust. The teenager's name was Naruto. There was a part of him that wondered if he enjoyed pain, so much that he would continually ignore the intelligent part of his brain that had been screaming at him.

He should have realized that for all Kakashi pretended, he wasn't equally fair or even impartial. Sasuke was his golden boy, or would it be dark shadow. They were a lot alike he guessed. And besides the entire town loved Sasuke and the majority despised Naruto. Naruto knew he was lucky that Kakashi had at least waited for the Chuunin exam before bailing out on them for Sasuke. He probably would have felt pity or sympathy for Sakura, had she not been as cruel to him as of late.

Yet even the attraction he felt for her was gone, he didn't want any part of it any more. It hurt him too much, as he knew with himself having competed against Lee and Sasuke had had lost, or had already not even been competition. He was betting on the latter.

Sighing, Naruto decided enough was enough. Shaking his head from past memories, he was now a ninja, and for the sake of those who do care for him, alive and for those who died, he would prove himself worthy of being a ninja. Zabuza had once said that the Leaf Village had no true ninja's, while he wasn't sure if he could ever take a life, even the worst kind, he sure as hell would train harder than ever. As Haku had once done, he too would do.

Instead of just training to be recognized, for he doubts that anyone would accept him as Hokage, though he refused to give up that dream maybe in time he would be it was still a dream he would reach, but that dream was now secondary.

His first most goals were that he would protect those who he loved, even if they didn't love him. For love wasn't 'I'll love you if your good to me', but just love them all the time. Sasuke, Kakashi, Iruka, Hinita, Lee, Jiraiya, Konohamaru, Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Tentan and Tsunade. Yet, he would train for them. That was his new dream, he would be the strongest to train for them, and also he would keep his word to Neji and Lee. He would change the village forever, breaking the old tradition of following blood lines. That was why he was willing to leave his home and train for three years, to an unknown destination.

Closing his eyes once more, he allowed a soft, sorrowful smile. He would shine one more time…he would shine until the light burned out. For good.


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Chapter 1 The Beginning (first few months)

The morning was still cool and the fours heads and the one in construction were still covered in shadows and the details of each expression were hidden. The sun wasn't that high in the sky, and the village was only beginning to wake up. Calls of civilians greeting each other as they began to open their various shops and booths echoed in the air. But Naruto barely noticed, his complete attention was on the group of people standing before him, some with watery smiles, others with smirks, but most of their expressions were warm and Naruto felt so warm and wondered if he was going to burn out as easily as he thought.

There was a time there would have been no one at the gate, but now…now, Naruto closed his eyes tightly to stop from crying. Didn't he already resolve himself not to cry? That last night had been his final weakness.

The goodbyes had been hard, despite Naruto's resolve; he found it harder to be certain when faced with the very people he had made his promise for. Before becoming a genin he had never been outside the village, and suddenly he found himself leaving home longer and more often. But this trip that he was about to embark on, was going to be for three years. Without his teammates…without his remaining teammates. The desire to change his mind quickly faded under the pain of the knowledge that Sasuke was outside these walls too. He promised he would become stronger, and bailing before he even began was not the way to go about it.

"I'm looking forward to our rematch, dobe." Kiba was saying, his puppy on his head, a smirk on his face, Naruto tried to match the smirk but the term dobe shot an arrow though him…Sasuke's own smirking face flashing before him and he was honestly thankful when Lee seemed to take that as his cue.

"YOSH! THE FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE IGNITING IN KONAHA!" And the green clad ninja was suddenly bouncing in front of him, his face stretched in a grin showing his white teeth "WHEN YOU COME BACK, WE'LL HAVE REMATCH TOO! FOR IF YOU CAN BEAT MY RIVAL…!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"Hn, ignore them." Kakashi-sensei was suddenly in his line of site, blocking the commotion behind him, and placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head, "Ma, I expect you to come back safely, Naruto."

Naruto met the eye of his most confusing instructor and tried to hide the raging storm of emotions inside him with his usual fox grin, it caused his eyes to squint close and hide his emotions neatly.

Kakashi-sensei was different from all the other adults in the village. There had never been hate in his eye or in his voice. Neither had there been indifference that the others held towards him. He had never hesitated in touching him. Often he had gone out of his way to always lay a hand on him, whether it was from running his fingers though his hair, resting on his head to restrain him or lightly whacking him on the head, when he felt that he was misbehaving. Naruto had never felt a blow for the sake of violence against him, only a tight grip on his shoulders was the closest he came, and Naruto never even had an imprint of the grip afterwards. There had never been a sting of feeling bruises healed from Kakashi, except in sparring, and even then he was careful to never cause serious harm. Embarrassment yes, but harm, no.

Kakashi-sensei would appear randomly in his window with a basket of vegetable and fruits that he tried to get him to eat, sometimes literally feeding him by restraining him to a chair, claiming that he needed a variety of foods. Naruto had even come back to a refrigerator of fresh produce and cabinets stocked of groceries, with a note on the table reminding him not to eat ramen so much.

And yet still this man had once chosen Sasuke over him, when he needed all the chances he could get. Giving his training into the hands of another adult who until that time had shown the same distain and distrust of the rest of the villagers. Kakashi was a complex confusing man, and Naruto found he couldn't keep his ground with him, changing the rules without giving him a copy like the village, but unlike them, giving him hope that it was a game he could actually win. It was…

"Be careful Naruto." Iruka sensei's voice broke through Naruto's thoughts and his cerulean eyes turned their attention to his darker sensei.

Iruka sensei had been the first to give him hope that he could change the village's mindset against him. His eyes that were now filled with concern and worry, used to be indifferent. He had never been like the other sensei's, refusing to train him, but he had treated him like he was simply a part of the scenery. Until, one morning, while he was sitting after school on his usual swing with the rain falling over him, Iruka-sensei had held an umbrella over his head and offered to treat him to a bowl of ramen. The indifference in his eyes, gone like it never existed. A gentle kindness in his eyes had replaced the expression. Somehow, sometime when Naruto had been unaware Iruka sensei had seen him, truly seen him and decided to give him a chance that no one else had given him.

They had walked a few days after their saying goodbye. Jiraiya-sensei leading them towards a river, where they camped near. Naruto had barely patient, he had been excitedly guessing what type of training they were going to do, and what super jutsus he was going to learn, doing all he could, to ignore the sickening sensation inside him. He had left the village only two times before without his team. The first was for his team, he had left because his team had needed him to. Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei had been injured in the hospital, in some type of coma and he had needed baba-chan to heal them. The second time he had left had been to go after Sasuke, when he had left them, under this crazy assumption that Orochimaru could make him go stronger. But this time he was leaving without his teammates, and he wasn't going to be gone for a few months, but years. Three years...three long years without his team and family, alone with only his hopes and dreams...but he could train. He could get stronger. Strong enough that he wouldn't lose his precious people. That he could protect them.

Being told that he was going to have start from scratch again, and had to forget all that he had been taught, isn't just harder than it sounded, but impossible. But Naruto found that his sensei had a similar attitude to him when he heard the word impossible and refused to relent from the matter, no matter how loud and long Naruto protested. Naruto had made a promise to become stronger, to be strong enough to protect his precious ones, to be able to handle anything that came after them, and he couldn't get stronger repeating past training.

But even Naruto, as stubborn and determined as he was could not stand against the baka ero-sennin stubbornness, and after a week of arguing, demanding, threatening and even trying to bribe him, he gave in. He rather repeat the blasted past training than have no training what's so ever. Annoyed, but vowing to go as fast as possible so he could actually move on to useful training and level more power jutsu likekuchiyose no jutsu and the rasengan, he finally accepted he would have to humor the old pervert.

Forced to stand for hours in one spot holding basic stances was mind numbing and making Naruto fear that he wasn't going to fly though this training as fast as he thought. And was threatening his resolve to humor his sensei. Hell he feared that he would even be done with this by the end of their three years. It took an entire day before the baka-sensei even allowed to him shift his weight to his left leg, and another whole day before he was allowed to transfer to his right leg. By the end of the first few days he was angry again, annoyed by the ridiculously stupid training and even more annoyed and disgusted at his wasted time. He could have trained by himself and been far more productive.

"Back to the beginning! Ha!" Naruto snarled to himself as he scrubbed in the cold river that they had been camping near. The cold water did nothing to help his mood and served to make him madder. But he couldn't help it, he was now cold, wet and miserable and had an entire wasted day behind him. He couldn't see the point of this training. How was standing in one spot for hours training?

Didn't the teme understand that he had a teammate he had to get back? A precious person lost to him, right now in the hands of snake freak who wanted his body and not in the perverted away either. He had already lost one precious person at the snake bastard's hands; he didn't want to lose another. Naruto needed to get stronger. He wasn't getting anywhere like this. He needed to learn actual attacks, had to get stronger! Stances weren't going to get him stronger, he didn't need to go over moves that he had done back at the academy, he had graduated, didn't he! He had even been nominated into the Chunin exam and had made it to the final round, and hadn't even lost against the strongest genin of their village and Sand's village. He probably would have won, if the Sound and Sand hadn't invaded. He needed to learn stuff like the rasengan and other powerful moves, not stuff that academy kids learned, but stuff powerful ninjas knew. He had been helpless, if Lee hadn't shown up...

His angry thoughts were broken when he realized he had torn skin, looking down at his scratched arm, he watched as the scratch faded as if never had been. But his angry fog was gone. The pain, no matter how brief had been enough to change his mind. Fine, if the old pervert wanted him to do useless things, then fine, he would. He'll do them the best he could, and fast as he could, so that the stupid jerk would stop testing him.

The first weeks of training passed by agonizing slow. Naruto would be forced into stances, many of the stances where not what he had learned in the academy, but what the ero-sennin claimed was in the academy's curriculum when he was a student. The stances he had learned were apparently incorrect. He had been taught to bend when he should have kept his leg straight, or to keep straight when he should have bent. The positions he had been corrected into were awkward and he didn't understand why he couldn't just stick to the ones he knew. Naruto didn't understand what the big deal was, so he dipped a little more than he should, have faced a little more slanted that necessary. But his sensei was relentless and forced him to perfect in his stances. If he had to be bent thirty degrees then he would be bent at thirty degrees. If he had to shift from his toes to his heels before he flexed the muscles in his shin, then heaven help him. He had to shift just so, there were no skipping steps.

What started out as an adventure and an opportunity to become truly strong enough quickly become torture. Day in and day out his life had become stuck in an endless cycle. From sun up to sun down everything was the same. Even the scenery was the same. It felt like he was back in the death forest in the middle of the second exam, trapped in that damn genjutsu, passing the same trees over and over again. The only break in his routine was his dreams, but even they were becoming stale and similar to one another, blurring together until he couldn't tell if he ever had different dreams.

Ero-sennin woke him before the sun was even up, the moon still ruling the sky. Taking him back to the night he left home, the moon illusive and still out of reach, sending longing though him. He would eat a bowl of rice and drink hot green tea to combat the morning chill; he dreamed of a bowl of ramen, tasting a rush of various flavors, rather than the bland meal that he had been given. Naruto cursed himself for finishing his last instant ramen in his first week. After the meal was forced down his throat, dishes were scrubbed and washed, left out to dry, while they began their routine for the day.

Jiraiya-baka would get comfortable on a rock and begin to scribble whatever perverted filth he thought of, working on his books, and look up long enough to order him into his stances. In truth, he rarely even looked up, but Naruto had learned that he didn't have to, to notice when Naruto gave less than his best. The blonde haired student shuddered remembering his cruel punishments he had endured for slacking.

He had been bored to tears and annoyed, standing in the stance of the snake for over a few hours. Slowing moving his weight from the center to his left leg, then back to his center, then to his right leg, before repeating. He had gone through the motions so many times that he thought he could scream, trapped with only his thoughts for company. And frankly there were only so much he could think about to keep himself entertained. In fact he had been trapped in his thoughts, that his thoughts were beginning to creep into negative bits, and he was beginning to see the red eyes, hear the chirping of birds and feel a white fiery pain though his chest, and himself falling back towards the water. Hating himself for those dark memories that were beginning to surface from where he shoved them, and not wanting to dwell on them or even think about, it was over and done with. The past, and should stay there where it belonged.

Naruto blamed his sensei, if he had actually taught him something useful, rather than waste his time, he wouldn't be suddenly thinking about it. Angry and wanting to lash out, but not being able to, he decided he wanted to punish him, and since he couldn't do anything physically, at least he could actually get him another way. It didn't matter if the man even realized it not; it wasn't like he was even paying attention. Naruto began to rebel quietly, instead of shifting properly, by using his sole of his feet first before adding pressure to his shin then to his hip, he skipped a few steps. He choose to shift his weight by pushing with his heel, but he skipped the steps in between from the lower leg, straight to his hip. Naruto repeated his little cheat a few times, before he felt confident to add in another twist to his gesture of 'sticking it' to the baka-sensei and he didn't completely stop in the center, but went from the left to the right. He was going this new cheat the second time, when his sensei suddenly stood up.

"Enough." The long white haired man put down his notebook and glared, "Fine, if you don't want to this properly then I have another activity for you to do." His glare had been replaced by a smirk, and Naruto gulped as he wondered if maybe had bit off more than he could chew.

There was no wondering left, Naruto found himself forced to hold two buckets full of water in his hands, with his arms straight out, and level like a fence, while he balanced on top of the river. He wasn't allowed to let his arms drop, or a drop of water escape the bucket on the pain of repeating this exercise every day, all day until he could keep complete the exercise. The river was much harder to stay on top up, unlike the pond that he had practiced on. It churned under his feet, and made concentrating hard, but what made it harder was that he had dodge the objects that his sensei would throw at him at random times.

Needless to say, by the end of the day Naruto was soak, arms were sore and unable to be lifted from his side, making it hard for him to eat, and he was bruised from the objects he hadn't able to avoid due to the restrictions he placed on him. He was also very reluctant to go against his orders and deviate from the directions he's given, for a while.

When Naruto began katas, Jiraiya had him go though them achingly slow. Each step carefully done and weight shifted perfectly. But thankfully when he was performing them to his sensei satisfaction, he would begin to speak. He would lecture on various different subjects, and Naruto was grateful for it, that he clung to the time that Jiraiya would begin to speak.

"There are many different forms, but there are thirteen I want you to learn. The Rat, the Snake, the Dragon, the Frog, the Rooster, the Horse, the Tiger, the Monkey, the Dog, the Boar, the Rabbit, the Cow, and the Cat." Jiraiya had begun to explain, after he made Naruto go through basic stances. After each form was said, he shifted to his stance, showing an example of each form. "They were designed to give you certain strengths when you fight but like all attacks they also have their weaknesses, and if you study one form of them long enough, you'll quickly learn them.

Naruto had to bite his lower lip, torn out of his grumpiness at some of the positions his new sensei had done. Some of them looked plain silly, the frog had him dropping to the ground, hunches on his heals literally positioned like a frog, the rooster had him little stuttering and his head bobbing. His humor was quickly gone by the next sentence.

"You won't just learn one but all of them. Like I started, each stance has a weakness against the other and you need to make sure you can use all of them. Only when you have them all down, and to be satisfaction, will I allow you to focus on a certain fighting form."

His sensei forced him into the basic stance again, and made him adjust his foot work, and his stance for each form.

"The rat is swift. It's not an offensive form, but a defensive one. The rat's purpose is to push your opponent back, so that you can get away. The form sacrifices strength for speed. Watch closely; see how the shift from stances is subtle. It's meant to be done in a way that your opponent isn't aware of the move you're going to make."

Naruto watched but he couldn't really see what his sensei was talking about, and so far what he heard about the rat form seemed useless. A defensive form for the purpose of running away seemed like a cowardly waste of a form. Why would he want to use it?

His loud protests were ignored and he was forced to position him into the rat form anyway.

"The Snake is considered to be balanced. It's both offensive and defensive. It's considered a brother to the rat's form. Their core is very similar, but where the rat had sacrificed strength, this form doesn't. It is fast and strong, but it's also very flashy. The rat was meant to conceal and keep attention away, the snake attracts attention. It works to keep your opponent off guard."

His heels were practically glued to each other, and swaying back and forth made him feel clumsy and sure that he was going to fall head first.

"The Dragon is offensive, is strong, fast and steady. It will not allow ground to be given to your opponent."

Naruto's eyes widen at that, now that seemed more like it. He wouldn't mind being taught that form. It sounded super cool! And just what he needed to grow stronger!

"The frog, is defensive, and relies heavily on legs. The arms basically useless and its fighting technique makes it hard on the opponent to track you, because you never stay in the same spot and you jump." He forced Naruto's knees to bend, and fussed until his hips were perfected parallel with the ground. A few leaps like attacks showed Naruto had the technique was meant to be used, not that it helped. As Naruto spent days dropping into the stances for each form when demanded, he often fell head face, like he feared he would do with the snake form.

"The Horse is defensive, and is like the frog, in its legs are the primary strength, but here the horse treats the arms as the same as the legs. The legs and arm techniques can break a bone, with implied enough force."

"The tiger is offensive. All the techniques are designed to be the first hits, its defensive techniques is basically to dodge."

"The monkey is defensive, and its greatest strength is confusion. It's designed to be chaotic and is perfect when fighting in trees."

Naruto couldn't stop his mind from whirling and picturing how that could be useful. That form appealed to the prankster within. While he didn't like the defensive part, he didn't mind making chaos.

"The rooster is meant to claim territory and intimidate. It'll literally a form that's meant for speed, not for power. But if you go fast enough, power won't be needed. It's meant to propel your opponent out of your territory."

"The Dog is loud and meant to scare. You can use power, but it's not meant for continuous fighting, but it's meant to take your opponent out, if he doesn't run. It's mainly designed to defend your allies. It keeps you in front of them, and herds your opponents away from them, if performed and used correctly."

Naruto could see how it useful, and wouldn't mind using it. He didn't see how half these forms were for him. But the dragon, the monkey and the dog had least appeared useful.

"The Boar is both for offensive and defensive, like the snake. It's meant though to charge forward and react instantly. It's not a form that uses tactical knowledge, but instinct."

"The Rabbit is defensive, it's meant to use your environment and keep yourself unnoticed when faced with a stronger opponent. But if your opponent gets close enough, you can strike fast and painful, before disappearing again. It's perfect for tactical fighting, not instinctive."

Naruto frowned, as he faced to hunch down and basically hop. He didn't like this form either. Pure defensive and it was just another cowardly form.

"The Cow is both defensive and offensive. While it leans to defensive, it can be used for offensive. This form uses both your feet and your hands and lots of power. It's a slow form though, not designed for speed."

"The Cat is meant for speed, and it's both offensive and defensive. This one leans towards the offensive. It's an aggressive and will use anything and everything you have on you and in your environment. This form is meant to make your opponent even regret think on trying to take you on."

Naruto thought that form made a lot of since, sense he was wary of the damn neko that belonged to the fire lady, it was vicious and not an assignment he looked forward too.

He hopped, he leapt, and he wiggled and swayed; always changing to suit the style he was demanded to take. He spent hours shifting to the left and right, turning to the back and then to the front. He shifted on the balls of his feet, the heels, and sometimes the sides. He would have to take careful measured breaths, if he inhaled to deep or too short he would have to begin again. Naruto could only pray for noon to arrive, while he searched the depths of his mind for distractions. Careful enough to keep an ear open, his previous lapses having taught him the penalty of not paying attention. The punishment for his deviating and not taking the exercise serious, paled in comparison to his punishment of being distracted.

He hated it. He hated the time he had to him own thoughts. Hated the poison that he had deeply embedded in himself, that rose to the surface when he had time to think. He had gotten good at burying the bitterness and hate that the villagers had inspired in him. Had decided to become hokage so he could stop the bitterness and had dug deep inside and buried it under, everything. But now with constant alone time, with only activity he could do was think...he couldn't keep it suppressed. It kept rising, trying to surface and make him accept what was happening to him.

Naruto began to live for two things, the infrequent trips to town for supplies and the even more infrequent lectures that Jiraiya gave. For the trips, it was because he clung to the break in routine and actually seeing other people, than just his reflection and his sensei. The second because it gave him a break from his thoughts, he got to focus on something else beyond his own mind.

Every night he went to bed disgruntled, he had learned nothing. Nothing that he could see helping him grow stronger, he felt that his time would have been spent on at least grow stronger, he felt that his time would have been spent on at least changing that stupid neko, he could would have gotten paid and doing something!

Instead he would shift into the stance demanded. Sometime the monkey and he would have his feet spread and he would be in the snake stance, his ankles almost touching as he swayed back and forth, careful to keep his body loose. It was hard. He wasn't used to keeping each form straight. And Jiraiya refused to let him just focus on only one form, like the rest of the ninja's he knew did.

A part of Naruto wondered if his way of sabotaging him. Just keeping it legal but placing it under a different game. Showing him different stances to be able to explain that he tried training him, Naruto just didn't get the stances right. He didn't want to believe that. He believed himself a good judge of character, he knew the indifferent look the older ninja population gave him, or of look of hate that the younger ninjas supported when they saw him. Knowing now of the law and what he contained, he understood the looks, and could even sympathize with them. Having met the demon inside him or even Gaara, who terrorized his village and even his siblings, but this guy had already taught him something useful. Had recognized him and had even taught him moves that the fourth had used and created.

He was confused and sick and tired. And desired action. How much longer could they do this for?

TBC

Okay, I know it's going slow, it's meant too. This is the three year training broken down. It will eventually have some action, and actual Justus moves. But right now, Jiraiya has to literally start from scratch. Naruto has been sabotaged in his training and he's also in the wrong mindset. To him the only way to get stronger is to learn insanely powerful moves. But we saw against Kiba, Naruto is a lot stronger in power than Kiba is, but he only wins due to using sneakiness? Well so he had a seal on him that only messed with his chakra, Naruto needs to learn the basics. His basic sucks, everyone has said it, no one really done anything about. Kakashi tried to Ebisu but Naruto went straight for the more impressive ninja…

Oh and to note, this won't be a Kakashi bashing at all. I feel Kakashi did the best he could with the most anti team he's got, and pressure from above. The last Uchia, arrogant and stupid, listening to the guy who killed his clan (not knowing why of course) has made no secret that he wants revenge. Sakura, a fan girl who is in 'love' with Sasuke and hates Naruto, and book smart but ultimately useless for anything but bait. Naruto, the demon brat, who has every reason to destroy the village for his treatment, who is not very ninja like. Wears bright orange, is loud, can't follow basic directions (go hide means charge at a very powerful upper ninja) and is determined to get powerful, fast. And seems to think, like Sasuke it should happen instantly. Has a crush on Sakura and dislikes Sasuke. Yea, go team. He was working to make them a team. He had six months with them, six months. So yeah, no bashing of Kakashi. And for those who would point out the chunin exam as an example, it's not really a great comparison for favoritism. More of nessary. Let sees Orchimaru appeared and tells Kakashi he plans on taking Sasuke from the village, and now Gaara, who has proven to be blood thirsty and crazy, who freaked because Lee made him bleed, is his opponent. Versus Naruto who has Neji, a fellow ninja of Konocha who makes it quite clear throughout the match with Hinata who he hates, that he lets them quit. Hinata was the one who kept getting back up 'stupidly' willing to die to impress a boy… He just expected Naruto to lose, Sasuke was going against a killer.


	3. Chapter 2: Learning Control

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, magna or anime that belongs Kishimoto and others, I just play in their sandbox.

**Warnings**: This is fanfiction, I will not religiously cling to cannon, if I was content with that I wouldn't be writing this, I would be reading the magna.

So please don't review saying but Naruto never learnt to do that or hasn't yet. Because Naruto will have actually made sense from previous canon of learning insanely fast and being creative in his approaches, during the three years. In two hours he learnt the kage no bushin, in a week he made a form of the mastered Rasengan. It has been noted that despite prevalent belief, Naruto isn't helpless or a complete baka. And frankly anime does alter quite a few things that Kishimoto had originally decided. There's also twists I throw in because it makes sense to me.

I'm familiar with both Anime and magna, so I will end up mix and matching things, and sometimes by accident

If there are references you don't get, ask me in a review or email me and I'll get back to you. Or if you want to talk about why I did things, in either protest or agreement if you so desires

Chapter 2: Learning Control

Finally having mastered the stances to his sensei's approval, something that he had begun to believe was impossible and a ploy to stall him, they were finally moving a few days beyond the fire border. When he had first heard that he was going on a three year journey, he had made the assumption that they were going to actually journey somewhere. That he was going to see the places that he only dreamed about, as he flipped through his textbooks in boredom, but that so far hadn't been in the plans. They had wandered around near their border, staying in the woods for the most part. But now, Naruto found that Jiraiya was finally ready to travel.

He was going to see different villages and landmarks that all those merchants talked about. Maybe even get to test different ramen and compare it, when he got back. It had annoyed him they had hovered so close to his home, for so long and never went anywhere. He had thought that this training mission was going to be different, but it was not as cool as he thought it was going to be. He had only learned taijutsu, while they way fuzzy-eyebrows and his bigger fuzzy-eyebrows sensei, there was no weights added to make him faster or insanely stronger. All of it seemed to be a waste of time, most of the katas he knew he hadn't wanted to learn and he hadn't even learned any super cool moves! It was depressing the first meeting ero-sennin had helped him learn to walk on water and to summon! Their almost two month trip had taught him Rasengan, which was at least an A-rank technique! But now on a three year training session and he's learnt nothing useful and they had left the village two full months ago!

It took months of dedication to outlast the boredom and to perform each kata perfectly, before Jiraiya finally let him move on from pure taijutsu. Naruto thought the torture was finally over. He had gone through weeks of stances, but nothing compared to the leaf training. At first he had gone through weeks of stances Naruto was so relieved to do more and in the break of the routine that the new exercises, chakra control exercises were greeted with relief.

They had camped the night before in a thicket of trees, with a small stream nearby and rose before sun rise as usual and began some quick chores. While Naruto hurried to the stream with a big pot and their special sealed canteens that allowed the container to hold more water than the container would be able to without it, the ero-sennin folded up their sleeping bags and tents and began sealing them away in their respective scrolls. He was still sealing when Naruto returned with the pot and canteens.

Kneeling at the fire pit from the night before, he rotated the stones around, making sure they were unbroken, not cracked and firmly packed into the dirt in a neat circle, which would make sure the camp fire remained trapped and keep the fire from spreading to their camp grounds and the forest. There were still a large stack of sticks from yesterday, checking to make sure they were dry and untouched from morning dew, he was relieved to cut off one of his camp chores from the list. Taking two smaller smooth stones from his pocket he began to strike them together, keeping them close to the wood. It took some time, but smoke soon cut, and a quick but gentle wave helped the small spark grow into a flame, and start the fire.

It was something Kakashi-sensei had taught all of them during their mission to Wave. He remembered Sas…the teme had been sulky because he had been told he needed to be able to blend in sometimes as a civilian, if needed, and using katon to light a camp fire would destroy his cover. He placed the pot on the fire correctly so that the pot wouldn't fall and smoother the flames and poured a few cups of dry rice grains into the water, before placing the lid on tight. The simple chores down, he joined his sensei who had finished with own his tasks and was impatiently in a clear flat ground area of the camp grounds.

Through he had been pronounced passable in the taijutsu forms, Jiraiya-sensei still made him go through the katas with him in their morning as their breakfast cooked. It was easier now that he had done each form so many times that he didn't have to think about it. As the sun had begun to rise from behind him, lightening the sky from its darkness with pink, he had kept his breath under control. Exhaling when changing stances and inhaling when starting a new one. They went through all thirteen of them, Naruto relishing in the silence where before there had been lectures and orders when he did the taijutsu. After they rose from the crouch position of the cat, finishing their last pose, they did a quick but thoroughly stretch and settled down to eat their morning rice.

While they ate, the pervert announced that he was going to start working on chakra control today.

"What!" Naruto yelled, spitting out a few grains, "I already mastered control my chakra! I've learned how to walk on trees and on water!"

"BAKA!" The white haired man shouted, hitting him in a head with a small rock, that only stung instead of causing any real harm, "You think just those techniques mean you've mastered your chakra! Those are only two possible techniques and the basics for every ninja! And I wouldn't even say you've mastered those techniques. You use more than double the amount of your chakra you need!"

Naruto pouted, what more did he need more control for, so he wasted some, he had tons of chakra, everyone admitted that! And even if he didn't, the fox had a ton more, and he had to pay rent. He tried pointing that out, but having to dodge a kunai, made him keep his grumbling to himself.

He cleared his throat and returned to his previous lecturing tone, "As I said you're going to start charka control today. And so after breakfast, I'm going to have you tree walk."

Naruto's eyes widen, but the killing intent made him remember his resolve and so he just finished his bowl, glaring at the fire, in disgust. And here he thought he would actually learn something new today but his sensei had told him he was redoing everything. When his teacher finished, he took both the bowls and the pot with him to the stream and washed them, though not moving as quick as he could, he didn't move to slow either. He just wasn't in a hurry to further waste his day. But here at least was something he knew he could fly through; surely the old man couldn't have any complaints about this.

Standing in front of the tallest tree that was at 40m tall, Naruto's eyes went wide! The trees he had learnt on in wave was only 10m at the highest, and the trees around Konocha were normally but half this height. But he knew how to do this, all he had to do was show the super pervert and he could move on. Confidence and determination now filled his cerulean eyes and he summoned his chakra to the soles of his feet and began to run up.

"STOP!" Jiraiya demanded, and Naruto stumbled and slipped down to the floor, having barely started, and having no time to stick to the tree, but then at the height he would have been at, he would have probably banged his against the floor.

"What?" Naruto grumbled, what could the pervert possibly be noticing?

Jiraiya-sensei turned his own glare at his apprentice, and growled through clenched teeth, "What was that?"

"I was tree walking!" Naruto protested, wasn't it obvious? What else could he be doing? It's what he told him to do.

"Baka…that's not tree-walking" He drawled in disgust, one hand pointing accusingly at Naruto was less than a foot from him.

"Yes it is! You saw me going up the tree!" Naruto yelled annoyed, unless there was something else with the same title that was what he was doing.

"Why am I cursed with such an idiot apprentice…Tree-**WALKING **is called that for a reason, you don't run up the tree, you walk up it!"

"But that's how Kakashi taught us!" Naruto shouted, his eyes squinting up at him in confusion.

"He ran up the tree." Ero-sennin repeated in disbelief plain on his face and thick in his voice.

Naruto paused in thought, thinking back to that mission from long ago in wave country, closing his eyes; he fought to remember clearer, back to their first lesson. Kakashi-sensei had been on crunches still recovering from his fight with the nukenin, demon of the mist and chakra exhaustion, and he had just announced to them that they were going to climb trees for training. He knew none of them had been happy with that, not really what any of them actually said and then the shock and awe when the man turned and walked up the tree calmly with his crunches.

"No…" Naruto admitted slowly, "He had walked up, but he told us it would be easier to run up…"

"EXACTLY, EASIER!" His sensei snapped, "That was a quick but sloppy method that works when you're short on time to learn, but it's the incorrect way. And only causes problems in the long run. We're not on a time table, you're going to w-a-l-k up the tree, slowly until you reach the top, and then walk down it, walk up it again, down again, until you go up the tree five times."

That didn't sound too bad. Surely there wasn't much a difference from walking and running, the old pervert was probably just trying to make excuses to get out of training him so he could work on his perverted stuff. Well Naruto would show him, he had already learnt this technique, running or walking, there was no difference, and after he did this five times, he was going to force the pervert to give him the next task, so he could move on to the good stuff.

Walking confidently to the tree, he began channeled his chakra again and began to walk up the tree, he got half way up, before he found that his next step actually crumbled the tree, and he slipped down, managing to halt himself with his chakra, after he slipped a few feet. Grunting, he gasped as his fall was halted, his heart racing as he tried to figure out what happened. His body burned feeling the strain of position. He managed to held on a little longer, before his chakra flared and he fell off, and landing on the ground with a hard thud, barely managing to twist and hand on his balls of his feet, hunched down into the frog jump landing position.

"Itai." Naruto whimpered, straightening out to rub at his ankles that had absorbed the shock, looking back up from where he had been, he frowned, what had happened, he had been doing so well, and then he just lost his footing, twice even. The last one he could someone what he guess, when he had first lost his footing, it had been unexpected and he hadn't managed to get a good grip with his chakra and so his attempt to stop his fall had only delayed it. But the losing the first time was confusing. Was there really a big difference between walking and running?

"Alright!" Naruto announced to himself, "It was fluke, I just need to try again" he nodded, "this is going to be easy! Dattebayo!"

Getting up, he dusted himself off, the pain in his ankles already fading, and began again. He got only a little further than the first time, but instead of his foot slipping; he blasted off, putting to much chakra down. He was helpless to slow his fall, and could only make sure he landed correctly, to cause less damage, it still hurt when he hit the ground with a hard thud, but only a short brief amount of time was he in pain. Pushing himself off the ground, he glared at the tree, blue eyes flashing with determination and tried again. This time he didn't even get half way up before he failed.

But Naruto was determined to beat this exercise, he had done it before, even if it was the 'sloppy way' and he was going to do it now. He tried and tried, sometimes making it further up, other times he didn't make it up even that far. And other times he made the same distance as before.

Naruto noticed that as he tried again, out of breath, tired and dirty as he channeled his chakra again, he could feel it flow through his body, as he covered his feet again, concentrating he made it the layer thin, but still thick enough to cover and tried again, keeping his fingers in a horse seal he began to walk up the tree again, going slowly as he concentrated on the feel of his chakra and the little layering between his feet and the bark that was keeping his sticking to the rough bark surface.

He caught his chakra trying to thicken three times, and thinned it out again and reinforced the layers when it became too thin. His eyes were open but he saw nothing as he centered all his thoughts on the bark beneath his feet and the layer of chakra he was giving off, which was why it came as a surprise when he found his left foot touching nothing but air. Blinking Naruto realized that he was staring directly up to sky, the tree's height no longer in his sight. Looking around, Naruto almost did a cheer right then and there, as he realized that he was at the very top of the tree, but felt his concentration breaking, and his chakra layer weakening.

Now all he had to do was get back down. But feeling pumped, he used the same method as he got up to get down, and walked down the tree, suppressing his urge to dance down as he screamed in his excitement. Making it the ground floor, he collapsed on the ground and laid back tired but thrilled that he made it up.

"Well not that you actually made it up and down once, you need to do it four more times." Ero-sennin dry voice broke into his thoughts, causing his blue eyes to flash open in surprise as he jumped at the unexpected voice. "Finish up so we can have lunch."

Blinking up at him, Naruto tried to recall what his sensei had just said, and had to stop himself from groaning as his excitement waned. He had to go back up! Again! Kami it had taken him how many times just to make it up once! He had forgotten his original assignment. But instead Naruto just forced a bright grin on his face, and jumped up, fringing excitement he didn't actually feel at the moment.

Walking it was definitely harder than running; he didn't have to concentrate as much as it was quicker. But once was better than none, he had figured out how to do it, he just needed to do it again. Concentrating he pulled his chakra again and began his slow but steady climb again up the tree. It was hard, his concentration often wavered and it took all the control he had to keep it under control, as he manipulated his way up. But he was doing it; it took time and more concentration than he was used but he finally finished his assigned five laps up the tree, and went to go find his sensei again.

Food sounded good, his stomach was growling and his limps felt like lead, not to mention the burn he felt over his chakra and he had a bad headache, that even the whisper of the stream was too much and made his teeth ache and his eyes water.

He found his sensei at the camp ground, tents set up and a cooking fire with the pot already set up as he spooned whatever he made into two individual bowls, it smelled good through, making his stomach grumble and complain as he sat down on his log across from the man.

"'Bout time you finished, dinner's about ready." The Ero-sennin said as a way of greeting his student without looking up. Naruto blinked at his sensei, dinner. How could it be dinner already? He had started before the sun had even finished rising. Glancing up he looked at the sky, frowning when he realized that sun was really almost near time to go down and night was close. He knew he was taking a while with figuring out how to get up the tree by walking rather than running, but surely not that long. He knew it had been hours, but he had been thinking it would be more near lunch time, not closer to evening.

While Naruto was gawking at the sky, the old pervert continued, "I had planned on having a more productive day, but it looks like we're not going to be able to move on just yet. Well tonight we're work on weapons."

Naruto wasn't sure to groan or perk up, the problem his sensei was that he didn't always mean work on the same thing. Sometimes it was work on one of the thirteen forms with weapons, other times it meant working on aim, or, if he was being really sadist, he would have Naruto work on his 'dodging'. Dodging meaning he would end up blind folded and spun him around until he was dizzy and staggering, and then start throwing kunais, needles and shurikens at him when he would either be given a bo staff where he would block or hit them back or he could only dodge. Dodging was painful and meant he would end up passing out and waking in his tent just in time to get up. Aiming just meant he would go to bed sore.

"What type of weapon training, sensei?" Naruto asked warily, as the ero-sennin held out a steaming bowl to him, with a "tabemashou".

Taking the bowl from his sensei, he picked his chopsticks, "Itadakimasu" and began to dig into the grilled fish with cut up veggies. The spices were simple, but his training made the food delicious, and he was happy to see that was no rice included this time. He was certain any day now that he would begin to white and absorb water with how much he ate it lately. Before this trip he only had rice occasionally, preferring to waste three minutes boiling water for ramen, rather than the half hour just to cook rice, which was no way near as tasty, nor did it have a ton of delicious flavor options.

Eating his own food, Jiraiya swallowed and took a gulp of water from his canteen, wishing it was a little stronger and more adult, he missed the taste of sake; it had been ninety four days since his last sip of the heavenly liquid. But he couldn't indulge in the open away even either way, not with the gaki's safety resting in his hands.

While the Akatsuki was gaining strength for the demons removal and wouldn't act for at least three years, that didn't mean it was still safe for his student. The genin had made waves in the chunin exam, beating the strongest genin of Konocha, the expected winner and a Hyuuga. And rumors had spread that he also beat Gaara, the unbeaten genin that had gained a scary reputation. Add in the rumors about the 'great Naruto Bridge', people were sitting up and that meant enemies as well. Many villages didn't like Konohagakure's strength, and would be very pleased to weaken it further, taking out a promising young ninja before he could become a threat, was just one way.

Jiraiya had a plan when he had first approached his former teammate and now hokage with his request…demand to take Naruto out of the village and train him as his apprentice for three years. He was going to teach him how to draw out the demon's chakra and learn how to use it tails, how to fight with toads and start on a path to become a fuuinjustu master. That plan lasted maybe a whole two days as most of his expectations went with the gaki.

He had planned on traveling out of the fire border, where he would begin to loosen the seal and start with that. But on their way to the border, something nagged at him; it nagged and nagged until he had them stop for the day. Maybe it was the darkness in his student's usually cheerful eyes or the widely fake grin that made him want to cry, understanding all too well what he was going through, but he decided to spar with the gaki, the afternoon of their second day. He had actually never seen him spar; normally when Naruto had been fighting he was involved in his own fight. He had expected Orochimaru to do something during the chunin exam, understanding his ex-team mate better than his old sensei it seemed, and knew that he hadn't given up, like the old man had assumed, just because he had already placed the curse mark on his intended victim. So he had missed the chunin exam, but heard all about it in great detail. The second time he had been involved in fighting Orchimaru, while Naruto engaged Kabuto, and had only known that he was out of his league but somehow holding his own against the higher level ninja.

He wanted to cry when Naruto first came at him, a sloppy punch going wild, missing the area he had been obviously aiming at. His side kick was little better. Using his kage no bushins, he was slightly better and only stalled the obvious defeat by a few seconds longer. Against a weaker ninja that overwhelming number of bushins would have overwhelmed them, mostly because they weren't expecting solid clones, and two because as it would tire them out. But against him it was only an annoyance. The amount of chakra, which was impressive, was absolutely wasteful. The 'fight' lasted less than a minute, and frankly he could found a more challenging match with an academy student. It was sickening to see so much potential locked in this boy, but being blocked by him because he had no grasp of the basics. His stances were incorrect, his punches and kicks were pathetic and more liable to cause him injury than his opponent. The only thing he had going for him was his extreme chakra and kage no bushin, both which would be useless against a high level ninja.

That night he had torn his old list apart and came up with a new one. He needed to learn the basics before he went on. He wasn't going to let this promising student sabotage himself because of laziness and shortcuts. And he sure as hell wasn't going to give the gaki's senseis' the satisfaction of succeeding in their plans to stop him from becoming a promising ninja or keeping him from his dreams of becoming hokage. He was still going to teach him the art of fuuinjutsu, despite that teacher's wish.

_"Please don't trap him in the shadows of the Yondamine. He already as a seal contract and the Rasengan, learning fuuinjutsus would only trap him. Naruto is already referred to as the Fourth's legacy, how can he grow if he's only seen as a copy."_

He knew it was out of concern that the chunin had pleased with him for, but he also knew that he was missing key information when he asked. What he was asking was if not teaching a Uchia, fire, refusing to teach a Nara how to use shadows, to not teach Naruto seals, was ridiculous and cruel. It was their birth rite. Naruto was the son of the fuuinjutsu masters, and not only that but as Uzumaki, who was a clan who prided themselves on their mastery of seals, he needed to learn.

If Naruto was just another apprentice and his parents weren't who they were, he would have most likely listened to his pleas. Well, more he would have given his request a little more thought before refusing. He didn't understand that if Naruto was a fuunjutsu master then he wouldn't be hindered as much by the council. They listened to the civilians now because there was little reason to go against them for a mediocre student, which was most likely the academy's teachers plan. But for a highly skilled 'seal' ninja, that was another story. The civilian councilmembers would find out just how much authority they actually held if they tried to sabotage him then.

The council would be just as likely to allow the jinchuriki to leave their village than would they chase out a fuuinjutsu budding master. But they likely wouldn't be able to force them, especially not with the favor Naruto had with others, so they would do everything they can to ensure he wouldn't think it was better to live elsewhere. Jiraiya also planned on him learning how to fight with toads, but he wasn't going to let Naruto waste even more chakra until he could learn to use the large amount he already had. If he actually had some control he could summon more than tadpoles and occasional small toads.

But he needed to think and plan, and start making Naruto into a ninja that could his potential. And so he started with the basics taught him thirteen forms, and refused to let him keep any of the bad habits he had learnt. The lazy stances, 'who cares where I am if I have enough power', the not shifting…the things that the academy was supposed to train out of you, not foster more. And so he was patient and stubborn, he ignored any complaints, whines and bribery, refusing to let him use any chakra while he learned these forms. Naruto was too used to teachers giving in to shut him up, probably because that was the only to get help, that if Jiraiya hadn't promised his father...

While the kage no bushins could be used as a training technique but to use that benefit correctly would take effort and patience that his pupil just didn't have. Naruto had the worst habit of taking the fast way for everything. His Rasengan, while impressive could only be done with the help of a clone, taking more time to use the jutsu, than it should, which would give his opponents time to prepare for his attack.

"Well you need more practice with dodging, so we're on that tonight," he said laughing at his student's pout and eyes wide with horror.

Naruto needed a lot of everything actually in practice, but he had come a long way since he first got him. He was still a loud mouth brat, who was under a false impression of his own strength, but he was getting there. Through his previously happy go lucky self was gone, replaced with obviously fake grins and shadowed eyes when he lost himself in thought. He didn't understand why there was times he would literally touch his chest in some of those moments, looking so broken that it only made him surer of his decision to leave and take the gaki with him, even if was just temporary.

It was the similar to the reason he turned down the hokage role, no all of it but part of it. He couldn't protect Naruto as well as he could as the hokage. His hands would be tied by laws that he himself would enforce. While he knew that there was no way he would be as lenient as his old sensei had been on those fools, he would need time to build a powerbase inside, as he had spent much of his time outside of the village and not many citizens knew him by sight. The council knew that he of his work that he did, but the villagers saw him as a lecherous pervert, who spied only on women's baths, not knowing that majority of the time he was 'spying' he was listening to their conversations. He had caught enough spies that way that he wasn't going to stop or change his methods because people thought he was morally incorrect. They killed as easily as breathing, if a mission required sleeping with a target, making them love you and then humiliating or killing them, you did it.

Case in point, he was attacked by some upstart new jounin during his precious research time. If he had known who he was, he would never have bothered him, much less tried to attack him. He would have wanted to take Naruto on as an apprentice but they would have made him wait until he was jounin or at least a chunin, pointing out favoritism. Anyone else but Naruto would have been find, but the villagers would have rioted, and the council knew it and would chose to make him wait until no one could really had reason to complain.

Tsunade would have tried to protect Naruto, he knew that, but he also knew what she didn't seem to realize, she wouldn't the clout. She was technically powerless in the beginning years, through it would be worse for her because she had little support or friends and many enemies. The only reason she had been able to become hokage was because she was the former hokage's student and granddaughter to the first two. Her blood was the founding linage. But she had abandoned their village for decades, and only favor from Sarutobi kept her from being declared a missing ninja.

But even that wouldn't help her much in the council's eyes. Their old sensei had lost a lot of political power and favor during his second reign. Orchimaru's betrayal and failure to take his life then, because he was his favorite student, had seen to that. And add in that he hadn't acted to reel in the citizens and have them obey him regarding his orders, made him more of a puppet rather than the dictator of a military nation. His own student, despite his shortest reign, had been extremely popular and ruled as he should, with a velvet glove steel hand. If he had citizens blatantly breaking the law he acted, through most the time his loyal ninjas had already interfered. They would refuse to not patronage their shops but also leave the restaurant or store if they were sitting there or entering. It was effective.

And then she would have deal with the judgment of the jounins who know that she had refused summon after summon, refusing to help in the last few tragedies. They'll see that he had been there, but she had been no where, and only returned after they had brought her back, a month later. No, Naruto didn't understand the politics; he wondered if Tsunade, herself even knew how much of a battle she was going to be fighting uphill? She was used to using her fists, but they wouldn't help her there, she couldn't beat her adversities a to pulp. Though Jiraiya knew that even if that were an option, he knew she would lose, he wondered if she knew that, or was still costing on her fame and legend.

The sake and lack of serious fighting had taken her toll, she hadn't been able to tolerate blood for decades. Her medic-nin while superior too many, most of it was because she had invented so many different techniques, is not where it once was. Her fighting ability is even worse. She was used to civilians who didn't have that strength that chakra reinforced, that could die from one hit. She could take genins and chunins, but against a jounin those techniques were useless. Most of her taijutsu were C-rank. He had seen genins creating moves that were listed as B and A ranks. That Tsunade, the one who used to be his teammate, could take her. This Tsunade needed to get herself back in fighting shape. If Orchimaru's arms hadn't been injured, she would have been killed before Jiraiya managed to get to the scene. Kabuto could have killed her, without her fear of blood hindering her, the only thing that saved her, was the he had been cautious because he knew of her legend. And saw her monstrous strength, which if he dodged, was useless.

But he wouldn't tell her. No wouldn't tell her, she would never listen to him anyway, to lost in believing in her own hype and legend, and while Jiraiya could have proven his words, he wouldn't. Because he needed to her believe in that she hadn't fell so far from who she had been, in her grief and running away. Because she was hokage, if she doubted her strength now, before she had the support and faith she needed, Konocha would be torn apart. Because her enemies already knew or at least her greatest one knew. Her other enemies circled looking for weakness, and if she knew, the doubt would be evident to those looking, and they would attack, trying to take power, making the one hiding in the shadows interfere because his plans were too close to succeeding, to suffer failure easily. Konocha would be ripped apart, and if both ugliness and the goodness of the village was brought to light, it would break the village.

He once loved her, not in the way people believe he did or the way she assumed he did, but he had loved her. But it was that love for the girl that she once been, that sometimes he still saw in her, not the genjutsu but that true kunochai she had been, before she been broken and twisted in bitterness. But he loved Konocha more, not the Konocha now but the ideal it was once and what it could be. His student…son died for that fucking village and now the man's son, who he loved as a grandson, was willing to die for the same village, and for them and the love he bore for them he would kill Tsunade himself if it meant Konocha survived. He had told her after all, if she sided with Orchimaru, he would kill her. He wouldn't take pleasure in it, but he wouldn't hesitate. And he took Naruto from the village to help him grow strong and to save him from the shadows that crept around the village, plotting. He would help Naruto grow stronger, strong enough not to be threatened or a pawn to be used and abused.

And it was funny because this resolve he felt deep in his veins hadn't been there until recently. He had been apathetic living day to day, just doing his jobs and protecting a village that he hated and loved equally. When he had first met the gaki, Jiraiya hadn't really paid too much attention to him when he had first begun to train him. He had only planned on him signing the contract, learning how to summon and maybe in a couple of years teaching him the Rasengan, all of these his birth rite. It didn't mean he would be taking him on as his student, it meant he was fulfilling his debt to his old student. It was been difficult looking at Naruto, and seeing Minato looking back at him, that he tried not to look harder than he had too.

He had noticed of course that his chakra control had been horrendous, but he had just assumed it because of Orchimaru's seal and didn't think much of it. His taijutsu wasn't the greatest but it worked for him with use of his clones, and hadn't looked hard at it. He was still to thrown by his looks; he had occasionally checked on his student's child of course, he was his godfather! And he owed it to Minato to make sure his son was taken care of.

But hadn't seen him for a good many years, and had never introduced himself to him, not wanting the small orphan to grow attached to him, as he was a wander. His spying kept him away from the village…that and his guilt, he admitted. He had appeased his guilt for failing to take care of the boy himself, by making sure his student's legacy would be provided for. He made plenty, even without his great success in his books, as all his missions were A rank or above, through it most of the latter than the former, he was too good and too skilled as a ninja, and the last of the legendary three sennins, they weren't going to waste him with anything less.

To make his godson's life easier, he had brought the boy's apartment outright, actually the entire complex and had found someone who hadn't hated the boy, seeing him as a hero for keeping the demon caged, to run the place and only have tenants that wouldn't harm Naruto. He had a large caretaker account that a quarter of his missions were added monthly too, paying for monthly groceries, the utilities and his academy tuition and fees. Later he added the Ramen Ichiraku stand on the list of his monthly payments, having a running tab for the boy's ramen, with extra for vitamins to be added to it.

A few anonymous presents over the years on his birthday; when he was younger some sleeping hat that a shopkeeper had recommended, a clothing allowance, that he really wished he hadn't, and good quality weapons that every ninja needed. All of Naruto's monetary needs were paid for. He had known that Naruto also received a small check because he was an orphan before he had graduated and officially became an adult, but he had thought it was good for the boy to have spending money, and made sure there were no bills he had to pay for with it.

For years, he had patted himself on the back, for doing his duty well, ignoring that a child also needed care and affection. He had contented himself in the trust that he had in his old sensei to handle that part for him, and was content with the occasional letters about the boy. But letters about pranks and poor grades didn't prepare him for the splitting image of his old student when he had been a child and they first met. Not with how his old sensei had been keeping his identity an S class secret. But seeing him he wondered if the old man was senile or the villagers were just that blind in their hatred and ignorance not to be able to look at the picture of the fourth and see him staring out of his son.

But maybe it was Kushina's attitude in him that made the villagers miss it. He didn't know her well beyond that she was his student's girl and the ambassador from whirl, but what he did know what that she was loud and boisterous, with insane amounts of chakra and brilliant at sealing. It was brought the two of them together, their unparalleled grasp of the difficult art, with her being an Uzumaki. Through how did none of the villagers put together Uzukami Kushina, the wife of Nakimaze Minato, having refused to part with the last legacy she had her village, with Uzukami Naruto, was beyond him. Especially when he first heard that phase, "dattebayo" so similar her own phase, but they were the past; both dead in the prime of their lives and what was left of their legacy was sitting across the fire, glaring at him.

And it was their legacy that made his resolve stronger than iron and as unbendable as a mountain, Konocha would survive for his sake. The three legendary sennins belonged to history. He would pray that what he feared would never come to pass. That he was wrong about Tsunade, that she was aware of her weaknesses and doing what he was doing, rebuilding his old strength, but he wouldn't let Naruto be sacrificed in that hope. Heh, he knew that if Tsunade was aware of his thoughts and why he was so resolved, that she would agree with him, though. The necklace around Naruto's neck told of her loyalty.

_Standing they moved away from the fire, and began. A quick double tiger hand seal, crossing his fingers together he called, "kage no bushin."_

_And five shadow clones of himself surrounded his student in a circle, giving him at least ten feet of space, so that he had space to move. The boy stood there in another one of his orange jumpsuit, how many of them did the gaki have? With his feet positioned in a solid horse stance, bo staff held loosely into two hands, with some distance from his body, and a thick black blind fold over his eyes. Soon he was going to take his sense of hearing during one of these secessions to make it harder for him._

_As he threw weapons at the brat, making him dodge to the left, sometimes jump or duck, and then dodge to the right, he was pleased to see that unlike in the beginning, more than half the weapons were dodged, and he wasn't going to easy on him either. He was using maybe mid chunin level speed and Naruto, a genin for barely a year now, was doing better than most chunin did. But still it wasn't enough, making his throws harder and quicker, he upped it to high chunin level, and shouted insults at Naruto when he managed to get hit three times in a row. _

Naruto was far from where he was from their first meeting, and then Naruto was barely above an academy student in anything but endurance, stamina and chakra. Those were insanely high and closer to jounin level, though he wasted it with his lack of control.

His taijutsu, Jiraiya still had a hard time suppressing his rage at the memory of when he actually full saw it, had not even academy level. Someone, most likely a lot of someones had purposely taught him wrong and made him a liability with it.

He could picture in his mind how they do it without getting caught. Everyone with ounce of sense knows that when first learning taijutsu the stances are uncomfortable and stiff for the students. They had to be watched and forced to keep the stances until it felt natural. Naruto on the hand, a teacher most likely coaxed him into getting comfortable.

'Oh the position isn't comfortable? Why not stand comfortably, you don't need to stand so apart, and no need to be straight here, relax. Bend your leg if you want too, pick your style.' Things you would tell only an experienced fighter to do.

If wasn't for Naruto's endurance he would have been killed a long time ago. It had taken time and a whole lot of patience he hadn't been aware to undo everything, especially when the gaki didn't even understand what had happened to him, and was unaware of the cruelty done to him. He was also angry with his former teacher; through there was nothing to be done there, with how blind he had been.

He had known it was a mistake to reveal Naruto's jinchuriki status, but Sarutobi had been old and blind in his belief of the intelligence and loyalty of his people. And yet ironically he didn't trust in his people with Naruto's parentage. Maybe Danzo was right when he said that Sarutobi had become senile. He didn't notice or paying attention to the fact he was being sabotaged. It was easy to notice, before he had taken Naruto out the village, he had requested his records from the academy, and along with it copies his assignments.

Oh sure the senseis hadn't broken any laws, the assignments that they had given Naruto were academy level, but had been originally meant for genius. Not the label that they gave to students because of their bloodlines and high grades but the ones who were like Kakashi capable of graduating with the regular course work at five. Sarutobi had created the harder to excitements to stop sending children out of the academy because while they mentally and emotionally weren't mature enough to handle the ninja life yet. Giving it to Naruto hadn't been in the program. He wondered if Kakashi had ever realized that Naruto had more in depth knowledge than his supposed brain? He had apparently been forced to know all twelve hand signs and what they were meant and designed for, with more depth than most jounin knew.

But because of the coursework far beyond his level and sabotaged his taijutsu, he was behind in his original plans. He originally hadn't planned on really messing with his taijutsu if he already had a style then there was no point, time and practice would make him proficient. Thankfully through he had gone with head with having Naruto fight against him, else he would have added to the problem, and stunted his growth. Thankfully Naruto was a quick learner once he put his mind to it, and was now proficient in his katas, maybe mid chunin level proficient, in his strength and speed.

_Naruto spun using his bo staff to block the incoming kunai, and jumped into the air as five kunais followed from behind. Landing gracefully as he listen and felt for each weapon, not hindered by his blind fold. Form perfect and he had to suppress a grin a the change in his student from where he had been. _

Through, to be honest since the brat was at chunin level with all thirteen forms, he was above them as most only know one form that they stick with. Only taijutsu masters bothered to learn more than one or two forms, and definitely not to the point that they were equally good in all of them. Even that weird kid with the green spandex and funky eyebrows, despite declaring himself a master of taijutsu, wasn't one. He only knew that green beast form from his teacher. Which was a powerful fighting form, but while his speed and strength was phenomenal for a genin, it could be beaten, as long as you were faster. That Uchia traitor had proven that when in a mere month he had surpassed the speed he had trained for a whole year to get too. Likewise Naruto proved it when he beat the kid's rival from what the gaki said, Hyuuga. With knowing more than one form, he could confuse his opponents by changing stances and moves.

Naruto's speed and strength had already greatly increased that he could hold his own against the kid, even without his chakra. With his chakra, the kid didn't stand a chance, unless his sensei actually made him a real taijutsu master, and he learnt more than one form. As Naruto now knew. In that regard there was nothing left to teach him in taijutsu but make sure he kept practicing and work on getting him stronger and faster, that only time would bring.

_It started off as a beautiful back flip out the next set of weapons, Naruto hit three back with the bottom end of his bo stick, but as he landed, he missed a step and landed hard. Jiraya gave his no time to adjust, and the gaki rolled out of the way of the next throws, turning his roll into a summersault, landing on his feet. He hopped forwards a few times as he tried to catch his footing. He was going to have to work on the boy's clumsiness. It wouldn't do for Naruto miss the weapon, only to trip off a cliff._

Anyone else and Jiraiya wouldn't have to push so hard, Naruto after all was only a genin, and had come a long way. If he could get his chakra control up, Naruto would be able to hold his own against a chunin, right now. But the problem was it wasn't enough for him to fight at that level. The enemies he would be facing would be double S class, and as much as he could gather they worked in partners. Naruto would have to be able to hold his own against two double S class missing-nins, and Jiraiya had only three years to get him there. Even he himself would have problems with them where he was at, especially as he hadn't had to really use his skills often and they gotten rusty. It was why he had given up sake for now, he had to make sure that his body was at top fighting shape.

Naruto had potential, but the hardest most frustrating part was he had been so damaged that they had to go back and unlearn what he had been taught, which is much harder than just straight on learning something new. And now chakra control, he knew that with the gaki having so much of it would be hindered and need a lot of work, but to find that Kakashi had let them learn it the wrong way! He calmed himself after Naruto barely managed to dodge the three needles at jounin level flow by pure luck and a maybe a hint of killing intent.

_Three kunais, blunt, hit Naruto this time, but he stopped the other two, one hitting the ground in front of him and the other being kicked back. Hmm, that was a good creative way to use a front kick of the horse form._

He knew that Kakashi wasn't one of the fools that hated the boy. Even before Kakashi had hunted him down after he had replaced the original substitute trainer. The boy had been watching over his pseudo brother from the shadows for years. But now he understood what he had meant when he had said that Naruto needed less powerful techniques and more basics. He had let himself assume it was excuses that the kid was making, wanting to train his other brat, that turned traitor, but after his three months of training with this gaki, and the other two month trip and that month during the chunin exams, he knew what Kakashi was talking about. Naruto had no basics, what he did have were so corrupted and bad that finding out another basic skill was messed up put his plans of training back again.

But there was most likely a very good reason, he had allowed them to take a short cut in their control, like he had told the gaki, it was a good method if they were short on time. In anyone else, it probably wouldn't made much of a difference, running up still taught your body molding chakra, and so when they would later walk up, it would be slightly more difficult but not too hard, after all they knew how to do it already. But Naruto was one of the unlucky ones. He had too much chakra that a short cut like that didn't help all that much, he still wasted too much, and didn't have a good grasp.

Most with high level of chakra's never bothered mastering chakra, actually even those who didn't have as a high didn't, unless they were interested in becoming medic-nins. Good control was enough, but Naruto didn't have good control. He had some control, but that was like trying to gather water from the rain with a cup, wasting more than it collected. A bigger container would collect more water. And even if Naruto had good control, it wasn't good enough. Naruto needed every advantage he could get, double S ninjas had large chakras as well, Naruto wouldn't have a great advantage with how much he wasted. Against another genin or even chunin fine, but higher up, the more chakra they had and the better control. It would also be a mistake to realize that for all the chakra Naruto had, he was still far from his potential, having the chakra level of a high chunin maybe low jounin, without the fox's chakra. So going against those who had higher chakra levels and control meant he needed to help Naruto get closer to closing the gap between him and S class, much less him and SS class.

He would make Naruto walk up that tree until he could do it in his sleep and without thinking about it. It was be instinct, he wouldn't need to think about it, he would automatically measure the right amount of chakra. With the amount of chakra Naruto had, even without the kyubi, he should be able to go up and down the tree at least a hundred times. And that was the amount he would have to do, for Jiraiya to consider that technique mastered. It would be easier tomorrow, he had already figured out how much chakra he needed, even if his level of chakra would restore itself tonight. But his chakra coils had already begun to gain muscle memory and would help him tomorrow.

He began to throw the next set of weapons, when out of the flicker of his eyes, Naruto collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Stopping with a sigh, he replaced with the weapons, and bit his index finger, to quickly sketch the seal that would return all the used weapons back to their storage scroll. Rolling it up, he tucked under his arm and walked over to his student, scooping down; he picked him up and took him back to camp. It was late, and the gaki had put in another hard day of training, even if the day hadn't gone the way he had expected it too, it was still productive.

Removing the blind fold, he unzipped his orange jacket, torn and bloody and pulled off his sandals. It was easy to tuck him in his sleeping bag, and a glance at his unconscious student, the bruises and cuts already healing, he headed out the tent. Stopping just to check on the protective seals on his student's tent, before he continued on to bed himself.

The next day woke up trying to remember how he got to bed, and groaned when he recalled having to dodge weapons last night. Stretching, Naruto felt some of his body's stiffness fade and stepped out the tent to greet the morning. Not mentioning last night to his sensei, embarrassed at how he had to be put to his bed, but strangely pleased. He never had anyone put him to bed before, when he fell unconscious; he woke where he had fallen. His cheeks were flushed, but thankfully his sensei didn't comment on it, instead they did their chores silently, before he led them through the rat forms.

Naruto ate his breakfast in the still darkness of the early morning, happy to see that it was miso soup instead of their usual bowl of rice and did the rest of his camp chores quickly. One of them being he had to collect more fire wood to be used for tonight, and replace on the stones as one of them had a crack that cause harm if it was introduced to heat again.

He hoped that his sensei was satisfied with his chakra control from the other day, but should have known better when he was ordered to start his tree walking again, this time required to do it ten times, with a time limit of having to be done by noon.

It was easier than yesterday Naruto found. While he didn't do it perfectly in the beginning, he had only slipped a little and hadn't fallen and managed to do his required laps up and down the tree, in time.

Lunch was simple. A bowl of hated rice and the two packed up their cooking supplies and moved from their camp site, much to Naruto's utter surprise. He had been dreading but expecting his sensei to force them to remain as he had before when he was learning the various forms, but apparently he was feeling merciful and let them move on.

Their pace was slow; obvious his sensei wasn't in a big hurry. Naruto was given the task of walking up a tree, tree jumping five trees and walking down a tree. He then had sprint past four trees, climb up the fifth tree and repeat the exercise. Naruto was sweating and panting by the time ero-sennin finally called a halt and declared that they had arrived at their camp site. It was evening, and through sluggishly moving Naruto did his part of setting up the camp ground. Food was dried fish from the previous night and Naruto barely managed to eat it, as he kept falling asleep and dropping his chop sticks.

Thankfully Ero-sennin didn't expect him to be able do anything tonight or worse set through another lecture on a subject that had an oral pop quiz, that every wrong answer either got him doing laps or having to dodge weapons. Instead he had mercy and let him go to bed early.

Their days repeated themselves, Naruto's required amount of how many times he had to walk up and down the trees, grew, and he was finding it easier and faster each time he went up. It was getting easier to not use to much chakra, but he was so tired after the fortieth tree that he couldn't draw enough chakra and had to start the process all over again. But Naruto wouldn't give up. It was his nindo way, what kind of hokage would he be if he gave up when things got difficult?

The down side of being a spy master was all the reports that had to be done, it needed to be detailed but also encoded in a way that none of the relevant details were missed. Naruto was busy with walking up trees, in a clearing not far from him, but still far enough he wasn't bothered. The gaki was improving but he still had some ways to go before he was at the standard Jiraiya would accept as mastered, and move on to work on walking on water. He knew that Naruto had been trained to do that correctly, he wasn't sure on short cuts could be used to learn that technique sloppy in learning. But Naruto needed to learn how to split his attention and being able to control his chakra during calm times would be useless in battle if he couldn't automatically control his chakra.

But he couldn't concentrate on his reports, he was missing something. Some detail that he knew was important but he couldn't figure out what he was missing nad to which report it was missing. It was frustrating and confusing, one of the things that his books had helped his practice with for his reports was short hand details that would help jolt his memory later. And he went through them and saw nothing he was leaving out, but knew it was there. Did he make a mistake? Had he had been hanging around Naruto to long that he was inheriting his blondness!

He was beginning to get frustrated and panicked when he caught sight of information he never looked at when he was jolting reports, unless it was time sensitive, the date. The scroll was dated October 1st so that's what he it was. Tension left him as he recalled, Naruto was turning thirteen in ten days. It would be the second birthday he would ever spend with the gaki, grief had kept him away from the village around this time. The anniversary of the day his student, who he had loved like a son had died. He had been there the day Naruto had been born and held him as he mourned the entire day, refusing to allow anyone to take the newborn from his arms. And now thirteen years later he would spend the day again with him.

A smile crossed his lips as he looked at the orange in the distance, before a frown of panic took over, shit his gift were normally simple and easy since he had to mail it, and there was nothing too valuable in case of theft or breakable because of possible carelessness. The last three years he had sent a bank voucher of 8,081 yen, a pack of seeds and various high quality weapons. He knew he wasn't the only one, gifting him with weapons, *cough* Kakashi, because the academy reports read that the one thing that Naruto wasn't ever lacking in was high quality weapons, the only other student who rivaled him in quality weapons was the Uchia, and that was because he probably raided weapons from his deceased family. The years before that had been whatever he found of interest that he thought Naruto would like along with some plant seeds from the area, as Sarutobi had told him Naruto was collected plants. He had brought the gama purse, years ago, because he couldn't resist, both his godfather and father summoned toads after all and was amused that the boy still had it and treasured it.

But that wasn't going to be an option his year. He was going to have to find something that the boy could carry around with him for three years. Scratching his head in thought, it needed something interesting but also useful, he was going to have to get really creative or else the gift was just going to be practical and something he would have brought regardless as his responsibility to his student and less of a birthday gift.

The next morning he woke Naruto up, he was pleased that the boy was already stirring, and there was no more complaints about the early hour. He folded their tents, and sealed them, before he began to erase all traces of their presence but for the camp fire where they would be eating, as he did every morning, despite having no intention of moving on, yet. This was a perfect position for a camp site, if something went wrong Naruto didn't have the ability to handle himself just yet. So Jiraiya choose a spot that was some distance from Konocha and some difference for Crater city, a place Naruto knew a little of and could easily hide in the crowds, if things went sour.

In a perfect world, they would stay put until Naruto could take a low level jounin, but in a perfect world the boy wouldn't need to. Finishing the last of the cover up, he noticed that Naruto was almost done with his chores too. He was getting faster at lightening a fire, and began leading them the thirteen forms he had taught Naruto. They finished just after an hour and ate their breakfast of rice. He made a mental note to pick up some more food choices, if he was sick of rice. It may have been any easy staple to store and good at filling them, everyone needed variety in life.

Instructing the gaki to continue his tree walking and warning him not to start slacking off just because he wasn't in sight, he waved off any questions of where he was going, summoning a small toad out of sight.

"Gamakichi, I need you to keep an eye on the gaki." Jiraiya ordered the small orange toad, "Summon me, if there's any trouble."

"Hai, don't worry I'll keep the baka out of trouble."

"Don't let him know you're here."

"Hai. Hai. Same routine, gotcha." The teacher frowned but didn't respond to the retort. It was true this wasn't the first time he had a few toads to watch out for his student, he didn't think anything would happen, but he rather be safe and sorry.

Leaving the toad to his spy duty, Jiraiya quickly hurried up a tree and began to jump tree to tree, he knew that there was a small village about a quarter of the day away, if he moved fast. It wasn't Crater, but Jiraiya doubted that he needed such many stores, no what he needed was some of that gaki's luck and inspiration

If Naruto had been aware of his sensei in the trees and was watching him, he would be awed and inspired as a red blur flew through the trees so fast that made the human eye question if they actually saw anything. That was a speed that only the elite ever reached. But Naruto was occupied in trying to climb his fifty-three tree. Arriving near the road to the village, he slowed his pace, and glanced around the area, the roads were clear and he couldn't sense anyone nearby.

Landing gracefully in a clearing out of sight of the road, only a little dirt was shifted and he quickly flew through the basic seals, he henged himself slightly. There was no sign of his distinctive vertical red lines that ran beneath his eyes and his hair appeared to be no longer than under his ears. He was wearing ordinary blue pants and a long white sleeve shirt, and plain sandals dirt clung to everything, with a bag swung over his shoulder. He was strongly built, but most would assume he was a simple farmer. When Jiraiya intended on going under cover, his disguises were more than a simple henge that could easily be dispersed, but this wasn't a mission and even if there were some ninja about, they would only disperse it if they thought he was an illusion. What reason would they pay attention an elderly farmer. The only reason he disguised himself was because he was distinct and since they were staying near the area, he didn't want to invite gossip. If anyone was looking for the legendary Jiraiya to find his student, he wasn't going to make it easy on them.

Since Jiraiya wasn't advertising that was a ninja, he was going to need to store his supplies in something other than scrolls. Famers often had wagons that they dragged behind them, either selling their produce in the town and using it to pull their supplies back home. Cracking his fingers, he shook his shoulders and pulling out a blank seal, he began to hurriedly draw the deals he needed. Before activating it, and a cloud appeared with a poof, revealing an old but steady looking wagon. Grasping the handle, he pulled the wagon easily behind him. What no one would realize from just looking at it was that this wasn't an ordinary wagon, the seals had been designed to make whatever was placed in the wagon, light and hold a lot more than it should, wouldn't be hard at all to drag behind him. He only needed it for a few miles after leaving the village, so no one would wonder where a farmer and his wagon disappeared to.

First step get the necessities, food. Stopping in front of a store, he left his wagon outside and located the bigger containers that were good food roads. There were soybeans were a good choice, he could easily grind some of it for paste and make some miso soup out of it as well. He grabbed a few others containers of nonperishable foods, and then as much as he was reluctant to, he needed to buy more rice. Then he needed seaweed, they had finished up the last of it a few weeks ago. He filled up on seasonings, knowing that it was made the repetitive foods edible. His eyes landed on some of the less durable food choices but desiring variety and admitting that he could easily store some of the more perishable items, he choose to listen to his taste buds. He could admit it, he was man enough, he was one who enjoyed their creature comforts and hadn't had to camp out as much since Minato was his student, and even then hotels were an option most of the time. There was no great enemies out to get his student until he had become a jounin and had started to make a name for himself.

He grabbed at least 6kg of nashis and almost doubled that amount with mikans. He wondered if Naruto ever had any pears before or any mandarin oranges before he knew both those fruits were rare in the fire country, he had first tasted these when he had been in his twenties. Pausing he knew that Naruto missed his ramen and thought of at least what he was making for the birthday dinner and grabbed the rest of the supplies he didn't have for that. Paying, he thanked the shop keeper for his help in loading his wagon, and started on the mission he actually came for.

A plant was a no. What he was going to have Naruto do, plant it near where they camped as a sign that they were here? A bag of seeds was also checked off, that would just be unfair torment, being unable to do anything with your gift until he got back. And what if he lost it because he was used to ignoring it. Nope, he left that store and looked at another window.

Clothes, hmm Naruto did need new clothes desperately. His jumpsuits were all worn and torn, and they were the best clothes he had left. The rest were rags that was used ot help wash the dishes. Weapon dodging and chakra training was a lot harder on clothes than just practicing katas all day. But he knew that it really wouldn't be a gift, he had already been planning on replacing his clothing for a while now. The only way it would be more than a way to be cheap, would be if he actually got clothes that Naruto would like…Jiraiya shuddered at actually helping add to the eyesore collection. The only thing worse would have been green spandex and orange leg warmers.

It had been bad enough to know that he had paid for those abhorrent things, the old man had taken great delight in telling him that Naruto was so happy that his clothing allowance had come in to replace the jumpsuits he had ruined. Absolutely not, he had waited too long to get Naruto out of those horrors, and he wasn't going to three years with a bright target next to him, especially his poor eyes. No, he would buy Naruto clothing because he needed them. He was planning on beginning to expand the subject of disguising oneself to Naruto sometime soon, and so the clothes would be a good object lesson. Mussing into the store, he squinted as he thought about Naruto's size and picked out eight cargo pants, four black, two brown and two green and knowing the boy's scream, chose three orange splashed with red swirls t-shirts, these were a lighter more subdued orange that his jumpsuits. The other shirts were all plain; he didn't bother counting them he just grabbed brown, green and black shirts, most t-shirts but a few long sleeved, that would serve him well when he needed to stand out. He then added two kimonos to the clothes pile, one was sky blue with white swirls everywhere and the second was a plain black kimono. A handful of socks and underwear completed the store.

Before he checked for another possible gift, a backpack, well that was practical and Naruto definitely needed one. The one had had been a freebee from the academy that every student received. But they weren't meant for every duty missions, they were meant for beginning genins who stayed around the village and only went a few days further. But that was another thing he was already going to buy, and was part of his teacher duties. It wasn't a birthday present. And most of the packs were useless, they weren't durable and they were too small to store anything. He needed space to put his weapons and the scrolls he was going to start soon somewhere.

Entering a nickname store, he browsed trying to find something. A calligraphy set would only be glared at. And fell in the he was going to buy it anyway, pile. A flute, did Naruto even know how to play? Mhmmm, that might be a good idea to broach in disguises lessons, never knew when knowing how to play an instrument would come in handy. But that was a no. Another wallet? Naruto liked the one he had, called it gama-chan and refused to let him anywhere near it, since that time he had borrowed from him, he been short on cash and hadn't wanted to go to the bank. But hey, most of the gaki's money was from anyway, and he was the one paying for the hotels and all the food but for occasional lunches he had the brat pay for. And he did replace it, depositing the amount he had taken in the boy's new bank account, the kid shouldn't have been walking around with that kind of money, someone could have stolen it. He could have taken as his due or put it in the upkeep account, but no, he opened a nice brand new spanking account for him, with great interest return rates and Naruto acted as if stole it instead of doing nothing nice for…hell, did he ever get around to telling him about the account he opened one for him? He made a mental note to remind himself to tell Naruto about sometime in the future, preferably back in Konocha so he didn't buy a bunch of useless junk with it. But if he didn't, his mail would with the bank statements he would find piled for him.

Shopping for gifts was a pain in the ass, he moaned in his mind. He was about done, when his eyes tiredly swept over at some distance corner shelves, as he walked past, and caught of a potential gift. It was a small paint set and his eyes lit up, it was both practical and fun! What kid didn't like to paint, smearing paint around and calling it art, getting praised instead of scolded for getting messy? Yes this would be perfect to entertain the poor kid during their down times and it would also sneakily help Naruto practice for fuuinjutsu. As he would gain practice using controlling brushes, better than a calligraphy set for now. Buying the paint set and a pad of thick pad of painting paper, he purchased that and the flute he had spotted earlier.

It was when he was passing the window with the backpacks again dragging his wagon, that an idea hit him! Of course a backpack, he needed a new one and something to carry around all his things in without being loaded down. The wagon was carrying all his supplies and he wasn't loaded down at all, it felt empty, though he knew that if this was a real wagon, the wheels would have been dragging into the dirt. But he also needed room for his things. Oh yes he could do that. All he needed to do was alter some of the seals to make the backpack light no matter was put in it and expandable from the inside, like a small space pocket. Naruto wouldn't need unlimited space or weight, so he would make sure that as long as he didn't try to carry Gamabunta around in the bag, it would be fine. He went in and found the best durable pack they had, and also spotted good quality shoes, and purchased Naruto's sandals that were worn and full of holes. On second thought, he brought three pairs, two regular traveling sandals, but the third were platform sandals like his own. A grin plastered itself to his face as he pictured Naruto trying to walk behind him, like his old sensei, clicking and clapping, and tripping half the time. It would be entertaining to watch and it would help the boy with his clumsiness. Whistling he left the town proud at his own sneakiness, oh yes Naruto would be so thankful for his gifts, unaware of the plan behind them all.

He erased, plotted and sketched altering diagrams and measurements for days, as details and ideas came to him that he either discarded or used, making him have to do more alterations. Naruto didn't ask anyone questions, most likely assuming that he was either working on something perverted or something boring. It wasn't until it was the eighth of October, when he finally finished the alterations of the seals. Now all he had to do was fix it on the bag.

The morning of the tenth Jiraiya was careful not to hint about anything special that day, and treated it like it was another day, until Naruto was sent off to work on his tree exercise again. Through Naruto didn't seem to realize that it wasn't another day, there was no hidden pouts or searching glances. Nope the boy had left racing to the clearing, muttering about succeeding this time. Jiraiya felt a little boy at forcing Naruto to do some training on his birthday, but he wouldn't make him work longer than noon today, but he needed the morning. The minute he was out of sight, the frog sennin got to work on his preparations. The normal camp fire had an extra-large pot placed on it, as he started the ramen broth, letting the miso paste mix with the sayu sauce. Unsealing a few storage seals, five large canisters appeared, each with a symbol of sake on them. Yes, tonight was going to be a party!

The two logs they used as seats were henged into chairs and a table dishes beside the bowls that he never unpacked were pulled out and set on the table, with a small plate of already peeled slices of mandarin oranges, next to a big chocolate birthday cake he had gotten the night before.

A banner hung between trees, declaring that Naruto was thirteen today, with streamers hanging from every other tree, making the camp ground clearing look festive.

He checked on the noodles and added more fishcakes into the kettle, and sat back with a sigh. One more thing he needed to do, now all was left was do before the birthday boy arrived for lunch.

Biting his thumb, he quickly flew through the five seals; Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram and slammed his palm down to the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Gamabunta arrived first, and moved to stay safely away from the table as not to any damage to the cake or special meal cooking.

Again Jiraiya called, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A smaller puff of smoke and the orange frog hopped up onto the table, looking around, "Is it time? Is he here?"

"Not yet." Gamabunta answered Gamakichi instead of his friend as the frog sennin prepared himself again, feeling drained because of the lack of rest time.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" And as the yellow frog, Gamatatsu hopped onto the table, joining his older brother, already asking for candy or at least a bite of cake.

He took a small and stumbled and was caught swiftly by a large tongue, who helped stable him. "Baka, you should have waited."

"Heh," Jiraiya dismissed the scolding, "I'll be okay in a moment. Ju-just give me a se-second and I-I'll take a solider..."

"You'll do no such thing, I'll summon them." Gamabunta ordered, and Jiriaya's eyes widen in surprise, he knew the boss had a soft spot for Minato and that he also had one for Naruto, but to bend the rules like that just to attend a birthday party? He smiled, yeah; there was something about that kid that made them do crazy things.

Gamabunta closed his eyes and went the set of seals himself, Jiraiya felt the pressure in the air and increase chakra, before there two more poofs. One was as large as Gamabunta but the second was somewhat smaller. As the smoke cleared to large toads sat on either side of Gamabunta and away from the table. One was as large as Gamabunta, Gamahiro, he was blue with two twin swords on his back and orange slash around his waist. He only gave a nod in greeting to the silver haired summoner. The other toad was just a few feet shorter than Gamabunta and Gamahiro, he was a purple toad with black markings and horns protruding from his heads, he wore a robe with a shield on his back and sasumata in his hands.

"I'm am very clumsy, but I'll do my best not to break anything." Gamaken greeted worriedly, eyeing the decorations.

"Hai, hai." Jiraiya waved off the worry, from where he was leaning against the table, the dizziness about gone; he had yet see a sign of this supposed clumsiness that Ken-san was always warning him about.

Looking around at the clearing he was satisfied with the five extra guests and knew Naruto would be excited as well. It would be a better celebration with more than just the two of them, and he knew that four months with only him to talk to had to be taking a toll on the boy. The two smaller toads were friendly with Naruto from his first summoning of them, and would be able to relate better than the adult toads. Through Jiraiya also had a second intention to the guest, Naruto wasn't allowed to do any jutsus until he gave the okay, which wouldn't be until his mastered all the chakra control techniques to his satisfaction, this would give him a chance to meet his summons outside of battle and create or strengthen a bond, Jiraiya corrected himself, Naruto had summoned three of the five toads, and they had some of fondness for him. Gamabunta had even bent enough to summon the other two toads for the boy's party. It was only the last two Naruto didn't know. But Jiraiya knew that sooner or later Naruto was going to need them, it was best for him to meet them in a relaxed setting rather than dire circumstances. It would help them trust and fight better together if there was trust if not affection.

But enough of serious crap! There was a party to finish preparing for!

"TANJOUBI OMEDETOU, NARUTO!" They all chorused, Gamabunta easily out doing them in loudness.

The awe and utter shock on the newly thirteen year olds' face when he realized what was going on, melted his heart. It was worth the effort, the chakra drain and the emptier wallet, it was worth it all.

"Happy Birthday Gaki!" He repeated again to the unmoving boy.

Naruto launched himself at his sensei with a cry when he realized he wasn't imaging things, this was for his birthday. He buried his face in his robes trying not to cry. Someone had remembered his birthday and did more than just wish him a good birthday, like the old man used to or the presents he received yearly with no tags or anything revealing who it came from. This was someone who was going to spend his birthday with him. And his sensei had made it so that he was actually going to have a party, with the toads all there. He stood there for a minute just clutching him, and had to suppress his tears. He felt like a baka, here he had thought that Ero-sennin didn't really like him or something and that he was just forcing him to learn a bunch of stupid stuff to claim he tried to teach him something. He should have known, didn't he teach him before when he had no obligation to him? Didn't he seek him out for the mission to bring back baba-chan and then later for this three year mission?

Still while he reminded himself of other moments, Naruto knew now without a doubt that this was more than toleration. Ero-sennin who had many reasons not to ignore this day, after all the fourth was his student and, died sealing the fox in his stomach, and he had thrown him a birthday party. His first birthday party, a birthday party was…was he didn't know what to label, but it was something utterly special and he knew that he would never forget this day. For once he was happy that he was turning another year older, and didn't hate the day.

"My first birthday party." Naruto murmured as he finally brought himself to let go, before he said louder to everyone there, "Kite kurete arigatougozaimas!" [Thank you very much for coming.]

The first words were quiet and obviously not meant to be heard by he heard them, and had to choke down an angry protest. Thirteen years was too long to wait for your first one. But it was long enough; he thought determinedly and did his utmost best to make this the best birthday he would ever have.

"Ramen would be shortly, go socialize." Ero-sennin told him gruffly and Naruto blinked after him, ramen…RAMEN! YES…RAMEN! OH THE FOOD OF THE GODS! It took a moment but Naruto quickly hurried off to do what his sensei told him to do, with a big grin on his face.

"Gamakichi! Gamatatsu!"

"Yo!"

"Can I have my treat now?"

Naruto face faulted, he still remembered that promise. Sheesh, deciding to avoid that for now, "how are you guys?"

"Eh, not bad. It's pretty boring without you summoning me you know. BUT I did…"

The youngest three were deep in their conversations when a loud "TABEMASHOU!" broke in. Naruto's eyes flashed, "RAMEN!"

Ramen, oh yes ramen. He hadn't had ramen in three months, two weeks, five days and nine hours. He didn't care if it was the cheap store brought ramen cup, he just his ramen. But what he hadn't expected was for them to have sit down at the table, staring at a big chocolate cake, thick white icing spelling Happy Birthday Naruto, the words surrounded by thirteen candles all merrily lite, while surround him and started singing.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR NARUTO/GAKI, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

Through his eyes burned and he had to blink and scrunch up his nose to stop from watering, Naruto was happy. He was so happy. His cheeks burned from the extra wide smile, didn't even fade or twitch at the horrible mix of croaking/singing that surrounded him from all sides, as he blew out the thirteen candles. He didn't make a wish, because he couldn't of anything to wish for, he was just so happy!

Naruto made the hard work of making ramen, ramen made from scratch and it almost tasted as good as the old man's from Ichiraku. He made happy sounds and sighs and slurped up every bit of ramen that he could, once he stopped worrying about what the toads were going to eat. Informed that they had already eaten, and wouldn't mind just having some cake. Then slices were cut, Naruto finally giving the promised treat to Gamatatsu, handing him one of pieces of cake slices.

But presents, he had thought he couldn't have been more surprised with the ramen and the cake, but to also receive presents was almost too much for him to take. Gamabunta gave him a small cloak, white and orange. The large toad smirked at Jiraiya when he did through Naruto didn't see, to busy trying to on. Gamakichi gives him a hidden kunai mechanism, his eyes went wide as he pictured the way he could use it. Gamatatsu had given him some sweets, which he knew was amazing because the toad loved snacks. His eyes grew even bigger when Gamahiro presents with a fūma shuriken. Ken-san presents him with a special jug of sake, that Naruto planned on giving away as soon as possible, as he wasn't legal.

He had thought the party and the ramen and the cake was enough, but still Ero-sennin passed his parcels of gifts. One of them was a special backpack for his teacher, seals designed into the material.

His pack couldn't be stolen from him, if it was lost or taken from his, he only had summon it back, and he didn't understand how but it could hold everything in its bag, acting like a storage seal and weigh next to nothing. He just placed something in the bag, and when he needed it, he just requested it and it would be there to pull out.

Choosing to test something that he wouldn't cry over, if something went wrong, Naruto's new clothes went in and looked and felt empty. Testing it, Naruto asked for an orange shirt, and immediately his hand felt the material of the shirt and pulled it out. He quickly placed the rest of his gifts from the toads in, before he continued looking at else he had. The paint set he reverently touched and reluctantly placed in his bag. He never had anything like this before, and he was excited to get started. One pair of new black sandals instantly replaced his old ones, and the other new pair, went in his bag. Naruto was still amazed how easily everything was going in. The strange sandal he looked at with mixed feelings, he knew he should be upset or at least irritated that the pervert had gotten him a copy of his own. But Naruto…he would never admit it but he had been jealous of the relationship of big bushy eyebrows and bigger bushy eyebrows, he would never dress like that, but that Gai didn't mind if people assumed that they were related, and was proud that his student wanted to copy him…Naruto didn't want to dress like Ero-sennin nor act anything like him, no way he wasn't a pervert, but that his sensei didn't mind him copying him, that he wasn't ashamed of acknowledging him… he carefully put them in his back, feeling touched. He didn't want to be a mini ero-sennin, but he liked knowing that his sensei wouldn't mind if he was.

"O-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu." A blue toad greeted Naruto formally when he made his corner. [Happy birthday, formal]

"Ano, thank you for coming, Gamaken-san." Naruto greeted awkwardly, he wasn't used to be polite and had a habit of speaking casually with everyone since no one ever was polite to him.

. "Call me Ken-san, makes me feel more reliable." Ken-san said easily, and Naruto grinned, awkwardness fading. "Hai! Are you enjoying yourself?"

"I am. I was pleased to be invited, I am a strong fighter, but I'm not very smart and I'm often clumsy, but I try my best."

"Really? So I am hehe." Naruto admitted feeling more at ease at having something in common the giant toad. "Ero-sennin often calls me a baka because I don't always understand what he's talking about. And we're reviewing tree walking, but I keep slipping once I make it past 40."

"You'll get it as long as you try. I too had a problem when I was learning how jump…"

The conversation was fun; Naruto definitely wouldn't mind talking to Ken-san again. He couldn't wait until he was able to summon him, it would be awesome! Naruto was so stoke on imagining it that he walked right into another toad, this one even larger than Ken-san, somehow not seeing him. He began to try and apologize but he seemed unbothered, and just blinked down at him.

"Omedetu." The blue toad greeted calmly, "I am Gamahiro. It is nice to see you when your conscious and not in a hospital."

"What? The hospital?" This toad's seen him before, when and he was in the hospital at the time.

"GAKI!" Gamabunta called distracting Naruto from the conversation, "I let you avoid drinking with me to now, because time was an essence, but you still owe me that drink! But no more! Sit and let's get started!"

"Eh? I can't!" Naruto cried shock, "B-but I'm not twenty!"

"Bah! We're in the middle of nowhere. And your thirteen today, your old enough to drink! Grab a glass it's time for you to properly become my subordinate."

Naruto would have tried to protest more but Ero-sennin pushed him down to the floor and handed him a glass in his hands full of amber liquid, he said quietly at the surprise in Naruto's eyes "You're a genin under your sensei, if I give you permission, your legal." Then he laughed, placing the special sake jug that he been given earlier in front of him, "Besides I bet you're a funny drunk!"

It was a comical picture to the group, Naruto was small for thirteen and have him sitting in front of a toad that towered over buildings the contrast was amusing. Even their drinks showed a difference. Gamabunta had a huge container, with the symbol of sake, in front of him and four more lined up. Ken-san was also poofing in more canisters, through to be fair some of them were in front of the larger adult toads. On the side Naruto had a cup with two jugs of sake.

"Hey pops? Can I some too?" Gamakiki asked, hopping onto Naruto's left shoulder. Gamatatsu also hopped over, but he just rested next to Naruto, eating another slice of chocolate cake.

"Eh… It's a celebration, why not!" Gamabunta agreed, "But only a little, remember you still have to train tomorrow."

"Cheers." Gamabunta announced and picked up the canister, looking at Naruto. The boy shrugged, deciding there was no point in arguing, and picked up his own cup, "Cheers!"

The liquor burned going down Naruto's throat and he coughed as he finished, blinking rapidly.

"You'll get you used to it." Ero-sennin said cheerfully and poured Naruto another glass, "Drink up," tapping his cup.

Naruto finally passed out in the middle of his seventh jug of sake, and Jiraiya was both amused and jealous at the tolerance he had. He hadn't shown any signs of being anything close to being effected until he was starting on the third jug, and that was only flushed cheeks. Through he did start giggling in to his fourth jug. Jiraiya had been drinking for years, raising his alcohol tolerance glass by glass, and couldn't drink more than four jugs.

"Impressive." Gamabunta laughed, grabbing his eighth canister, "I think I'm going to enjoy having him as my drinking partner."

"He does have good tolerance." Ken-san mentioned his voice mildly impressed, he was on his sixth. He ran a tavern back at Mount Myōboku and had faced many various drinkers, some with impressive tolerance and others who were just pitiful, that it seemed the smell alone made them drunk.

"Yeah but it's going to pain on my wallet when I have to teach him how to function drunk." He ignored the laugher in response to his pain. It was a lesson that most ninjas didn't receive until they were a jounin unless they had high level security level. The chunin who worked in the Hokage's tower all had be trained simply because they handled paperwork, and while they might not how to read the code, all they had to do was recite it someone who could. It wasn't just alcohol they were trained in, but anything that could impair their actions. Like the drug Tsunade had slipped in his drink. In him it messed up his chakra control, but his mental faculties were still sharp. In someone untrained, it could make them susceptible or at least mentally deficient and blurt out things because they weren't firing on all cylinders.

Jiraiya glanced at his snoring student curled around the two smaller frogs and somehow resting on Gamahiro's legs, who was unbothered as being used as a bed. Yes he definitely was needed to work on that training; Naruto already had a bad habit of speaking first and thinking next, and constantly wanted to let everyone know his strategies so that they would be amazed at his thinking. He didn't even need to be under an influence, if one asked, Naruto would be happy to reveal everything, unless specially told not to share certain information or he was worried about their reaction. Part of it, Jiraiya knew was because he had grown up ignored only receiving negative attention if he received any notice that he was desperate for positive attention.. He had noticed Naruto was getting better at keeping quiet about his strategies but that was most likely he wanted to beat his so bad. But he had hope that with his constant attention with it only being the two of them, it would help quiet the voice screaming 'give me attention'. And if he wasn't enough then having a friendship with the summons would. The party should at last show him that the toads would be happy to converse with him.

The morning after the party, Naruto didn't understand why his sensei kept asking him how he felt, he was feeling good. He had his first birthday party, had knew clothes beside his ragged clothing, even if his sensei made his promise to practice in the jump suits with tree walking until they were completely worn. He had ramen last night, and there was no rice this morning but left over cake. He actually looked disgusted when Naruto devoured three slices that morning and bounced off to train.

He felt optimistic and that he could easily meet the required fifty times today.

Two more weeks of training and Naruto finished climbing up and down the tree a hundred times, without falling. Through Naruto had to admit it wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossibly hard, it just took effort and keeping track of his level of chakra, stopping when he weakened, waiting until it revived a little, but he did it! And that evening as they sat around the fire eating dinner, his sensei announced that not only was Naruto going to begin water walking tomorrow, but they were packing up and leaving after morning taijutsu!

Naruto didn't know why he would need to need to do water walking, his sensei was the one who taught him, so if he learnt it wrong, it was his sensei's fault, and proof the man was stalling. Through now Naruto didn't think the stalling was malicious, but more out of laziness, wanting more time to work on his perverted stories.

"Dattebayo!" Naruto began to shout, but lowered his volume at the sharp look from his sensei. Lately he had been on his case about his volume, not that he any room to talk. He wasn't the only loud one after all. "Really? We're really moving on?"

"Yes my business here is finished and we lingered here in Fire Country too long."

Naruto's eyes went wide he had only been out of the Fire Country once and that was to wave country. It was a small island and it had been suffering under Gatou's rule and hadn't been a wonderful sight. Through he was glad that they had been able to help.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked bouncing in place, mind whirling with possibilities. Would there be snow? He had never seen it and only heard about it but it sounded awesome and there was no trees there cause of the cold, so it had to be different. Or maybe…

"We're headed east."

Naruto waited for more than that but his sensei had told his attention to the stars. "East? Where east?"

"Even if I told you would you even understand what I was talking about?" The ero-sennin said leaning back with a sigh, before looking at Naruto, "Look we have been given a mission to check a source of information!"

Naruto began to speak, full of questions and comments, but the old teacher shook his finger, "no, don't even bother asking. The mission is it too sensitive to reveal to a loud mouth, until needed."

"WHAT THAT'S…!" Naruto flushed at the ironic look the man gave.

"Exactly my point, as a ninja you need to be caution of information you share. If you blurt out sensitive information someone could over hear and cause the mission to fail, or at least lives to be lost."

Naruto sat back subdued, a half pout forming he could be quiet.

"Now Gaki, I'll make you a deal." Naruto perked up at that, a deal was good that meant compromise, "If you practice keeping your voice down and stop from blurting out things I'll share mission details with you, that I'm allowed too."

"But how am I going to practice if you don't…?"

"Your ninja, I shouldn't have to keep telling you this, if you want to grow you're going to need to figure things out for yourself. But this is a good way for you to practice figuring things out. As a rule clients tell you limited things simple because they think you don't need to know anything else, which could cost you a mission. What you need to do is be able to figure information out without anyone telling."

Naruto frowned this sounded like one of those tricks the super pervert liked to pull on him.

Sigh, "Seriously gaki…okay, we're going east. You don't know why we're going east, only that we're checking out information. You don't know anything, so you need to be able to find information. So you need to practice before the mission begins. Hmmm, I'm give you a month…a month to gather information and _**keep it **_to yourself until I ask for your report at the end of the month. You can ask me general questions but you need to keep your information to yourself. And make a report."

"A month?" Naruto shouted outraged.

"Loud again brat." He scolded, "Yes a month, I'm not saying you're not going to be talking, believe me I have a busy schedule planned for you, but you're going to look and gather info." Seeing the expression on Naruto's face, he relented, "Fine, we're building up. We're start with a week."

Naruto began to breathe again before his face scrunched up, "Inform you on what?"

"Didn't I just say that you need to figure it out! That you're not a baby but a ninja! Geez, you will report to me in a week with information you have gathered, outside, OUTSIDE of what I tell you. I'm not giving you anymore, if you want to grow as a ninja you need to figure things out. And don't tell me until I ask you for it, or the deals done."

Naruto nodded, but then pushed a little more, "So if I report whatever you want me to report, and then you'll tell me the mission?"

"Depends on how you do." He sighed again, feeling old, "Now we got off track, as I was trying to say since we're going to be traveling east trainings going to be different. I won't be wasting time as I did with the tree exercise. You'll train as you go. In the morning our routine won't be much different, we get up, do our taijutsu, and eat. But here things change, everything is packed up. After we eat, I'm going to work with you on disguises. In my line of work their necessary and there be useful, even if it seems like a waste of time. When it becomes light, we're going to be covering the camp site and making it look untouched. The camp fire rocks need to be moved and thrown about. And bury the ashes under earth, don't worry I'll do that. You not going to be able too much, but you'll observe me, so you'll know how to do this, when the time comes."

Naruto nodded.

"Good, then we hit the road. I'll have you work on water walking, and correct any problems I see. I might decide to teach you while we walk, if I do know that I will test you on anything I go over, and for every wrong answer, your punishment will increase. We won't break for lunch, but eat as we go. If you get to tired, we'll take a break. But you'll only get only two throughout the day, after those your toughing it out."

Naruto narrowed his eyes; he wouldn't need any breaks.

"When I say stop, we're set up camp. It will be simple, we're not using tents. Just sleeping bags and a camp fire pit. Depending on circumstances we're either use the pot or we're cooking with just an open fire, using skewers. We don't want to draw attention any more than we need to. And important thing, I'll tell only once!" His voice grew even more serious, "If I tell you to stop, then you stop, and sink into the water. If I tell you to get out of the water, you land next to me. Understood!"

"H-hai."

"Good, one more thing, clothes. No wearing your headband and you will wear only the brown pants and either the green or black shirts, maybe the plainer traveling cloak but nothing orange."

"Sensei…" Naruto began to protest.

"No," He cut him off, "This isn't negotiable. We're going to be two simple travelers on the road, it's easy to make excuses for water walking, if you're in the water, your swimming or I pushed you in. Your clothing will make you stand out, and that is the first lesson in disguises."

Naruto frowned and sucked his bottom lip in thought, repeat offenses of ignoring that voice taught him the painful lesson of don't.

"What about weapons?" He really didn't want to give those up, he would feel naked without them, it was bad enough that he was going to lose his headband, but his weapons too.

He answered after a moment of thought, "The pouch will be put away, but I'll let you wear the hidden mechanism, you don't know how to use it, well yet, but at least you won't be totally unarmed."

The next morning was as his ero-sennin had told him it would be, a repeat of every morning until the breakfast was done. Naruto was reluctantly wearing what he had been told too, feeling plain and boring looking.

His sensei looked him over and nodded his approval and pulled out a small container,  
"Put this on."

"What is it?" Naruto said taking it.

"Cover for your birthmarks, don't worry its water proof."

"Make up!" Naruto yelped holding the cream as far he could away from him.

"Listen up, lesson 1 in disguises. Distinguishable marks need to be hidden. Your blonde hair, blue eyed and have whisker like birthmarks. Those three traits of your needs to be taken into consideration every time. This will take away at least one of them."

Naruto wasn't sure he should be thrilled that he was noticeable or upset that he had to cover up. He liked standing out, but he knew that he didn't put on, his sensei would just force it on him anyway, and so he took the path of least resistance and rubbed the cold cream onto his cheeks, until he was told it was blended.

"Okay like I said before, your blonde hair and blue eyed, what do you think you should do?"

Naruto frowned, he didn't know what he could do with his eyes, "um henge?"

"Closer but NO! That's the sloppy way of disguises and the fastest way to being discovered. There are paranoid people out there who go around disrupting genjutsus because they could and some are sensitive to that and you don't have any powerful techniques to hold up against scrutiny. No, the best way is doing this without any jutsus."

"Cover up the hair?" Naruto purposed reluctantly.

"Correct, we're going to go with dye." He said holding out another container. "Now normally I would have you put in color contacts…" Naruto almost protested there, "But I don't currently have any, so we're just going to with changing your hair."

**Tabemashou- Let's Eat**

**Itadakimasu- [clap your hands together over the food first] thank you for the food.**

Naruto' taijutsu actually isn't as bad as Jiraiya was claiming it was. Some of Naruto's creations are quite powerful. Like the Bunshin Taiatari [Clone Suicide Ramming Technique], it's officially an A rank technique. But for Jiraiya, Naruto might as well be an academy student. Also back in his day, wars were constant and the 1st and 2nd hokages weren't as 'soft' as Sarutobi, standards were harder. Most likely what a genin was expected to know today, that was the standard academy student's level.

**1.5m-5ft**

**.9m- 3ft**

**And for those who wonder why Naruto isn't screaming believe it after everyone sentence, because that's DUB! **Naruto has some catch phases, my nindo way or my ninja way, but he says it more as a reminder to himself not to give up, just like reminding himself of his dream, I will be hokage. Through now it's more, 'I'll be Sasuke back, that's my promise'. And Dattebayo, which contrary to some belief, means nothing, it's his way of exclaiming his joy or his irritation. Kind of like martial arts make a sound, like hu or meditators hmmm. Sets and reinforces his mood. And manga doesn't have him saying it as much as he did in the beginning, and no way near the amount he does in the anime, it's for humor effect.


End file.
